Taking Off: a Nudge Story
by lys phillips
Summary: Nudge feels like she doesn't belong in the Flock, but if not there, where? Maybe with her real family? Max has found her blood parents, maybe it's time Nudge looked for hers. Maybe it's time Nudge found where she really belongs.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is weird. I don't think I depicted James Patterson's Nudge that well. This one's kind of... depressing. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. **

**Taking Off**

Chapter 1

I was really happy for her. I was. Her face had taken on an emotion that rarely visited the Flock: happiness. She was smiling more now. She let Gazzy and Iggy get away with more of their antics than usual. And was it my imagination that Max constantly threw these meaningful looks at Fang... and that he threw them back at her?

So yes, Max's happiness was one thing I'd vowed to achieve. Let's face it, her life was not easy. The weight of the world had to ache occasionally. So I was _happy_ that she got her guy and her new family. Even the aftershock of Ari's funeral could not keep the smile off her face for long.

But...

I've learned in life that there are always "but"s. These "but"s usually take the spotlight off of the happy things in life and give people dark ideas that creep up in the middle of the night and take root. They don't let go.

I was happy for Max, "but"...

What about me?

I heard laughter. This, to you normal people, wouldn't be an uncommon sound. If someone around _you_ laughed it wouldn't be so abnormal that your heart would give a funny little jump and you'd thank the Lord that you'd gotten out of that battle alive. But I basked in the glow of that laughter. Because who knew if I'd hear it again once I left this place.

Everyone had been happier here. Max and Fang would leave for long walks and come back, Max blushing and Fang looking very happy with himself. Iggy was, shall we say, "bonding" with Ella in the way that they would talk and laugh animatedly into the night. Dr. Martinez took to Angel as if Angel's last name was now "Martinez". In fact, Angel got an entirely new wardrobe and she, Ella and Dr. Martinez spent hours dressing her up in the new clothes. Gazzy was happy to have such a big backyard to run around in, and occasionally there would be a loud _boom_come from the backyard. Gazzy would then come into the house looking completely innocent as if there weren't ashes smudging his face.

We hadn't gotten to do this since Anne, and she'd turned out to be a traitor. But this was Max's actual family, and if she trusted them then who were we to judge? The Flock was happy and though we were leaving in two days, we loved it here.

Well...

I shouldn't say "we".

I wouldn't confess this to anyone. Dr. Martinez had been gracious and kind, and unusually generous to donate her house to us for the past few days. But I couldn't _stand_ it there. There wasn't anything really wrong with the place itself, I just felt as though something were missing. I was antsy, and anxious to get out of there to find out what it was. As the other members of the Flock were settling in to a routine here I was ready to hop out at a moment's notice. I was ready to go back to our old life. That's what surprised me the most.

Rat BBQ? Sleeping on the cold, wet grass? Hiding out in damp caves? Was I really ready to give up a bed and food and shelter for that?

Well, yes, I was.

But then I wouldn't expect you to understand when I hardly did myself. I don't know why it bugged me so much when Dr. Martinez would ruffle Angel's hair or kiss her on the cheek. Or that Iggy was always touching Ella's hand, the way he did when he wanted to know where someone was. I don't know why I felt a little stab of hurt when I'd see Max, Ella and Mrs. Martinez together. Maybe it was because they looked like a family, in every sense of the word. They looked alike, and they were comfortable with each other. And I don't know why it shook me up so much that Max had blood relations. I should be happy for her, right? And I tried to be, but I just grew to hate the place more each day.

Darn you teenage mood swings.

Maybe the family vibe had been amped up a little because of the fact that it was New Year's Eve. A holiday. A time to spend with your family. A time for joy and _laughter_.

I heard it again. Giggles wafted from the other room. I tried to focus on the television. It was some soap opera I'd never heard of but got hooked on the first night of our stay. See, what was happening was that Bella was in love with this guy named Edward, only Edward was a vampire and therefore had these constant urges to suck her blood, so Edward was thinking it wasn't safe to be with Bella, so Edward went to South America, and Bella was left with a broken heart, so this kid named Jacob who's a werewolf decides to charm Bella into being with him and... Well it's all very exciting. Only I couldn't focus on it because the laughter from the other room kept coming into my air and taking over. And with each giggle, and with each chuckle, I'd get more and more annoyed.

What was wrong with me? I am _not_ like this. Something must be happening to get me this way. You know, I hardly said a thing all day. The Flock thinks it's just because I was absorbed in my stories but I really and truly _didn't_ want to talk to any of them. Not even Max, who I'd always considered my sister.

_She's got a new sister now_.

I stood up. I didn't know why I stood up; it seemed to me like a very stupid thing to do. I was standing up without a reason, so without a goal in mind I start walking.

The Martinez house isn't that big. there are two stories. on the first is a living room, a kitchen and a dining room. All of these rooms are connected by a doorway without a door, and the living room leads to an outside deck. The deck is on a platform that's raised a slight, and going even further than that is this field of grass. Past the grass are woods that go on for ages.

Upstairs are three bedrooms and a bathroom, the guest bedroom, Dr. Martinez's room and Ella's room. No expecting six bird kids and one reformed mad-scientist, Dr. M squeezed us in the best she could. I'd offered to sleep downstairs on the couch, actually, because the couch was in front of the TV, and had become my unofficial bedroom anyway. Max and Angel, though, decided to take Dr. M's offer and bunk in Ella's room, and that's where I found myself subconsciously going.

I hoped Max would be in there although I new that hope was pretty slim. Everyone was doing something. I was the only exception in the fact that I spent my days on the couch in front of the Box, but nobody else was as bored or frustrated as I, and they all kept busy with various activities. Yet, on the off chance that Max _was _there, maybe I could talk to her about the kind of crap I was feeling.

I turned the doorknob and opened the door. It seemed like such a simple and innocent thing to do, but it led to a whole mess of trouble.

It didn't matter that I'd already seen it coming. It didn't matter that their actions had hinted around this or that Gazzy's constant teasing could be heard at anytime. None of that mattered because Iggy had still been up in the air about it. They'd never really confirmed it. but here it was.

Iggy's hands moved quickly, glued to her skin. He kind of bit at her lips, but she looked like she was enjoying it because she bit back. It was gross, and it was gruesome, and it was a complete slap in the face.

I assure you I had a lot of witty things to say at the time, but sometimes my brain thinks of it and my mouth rebels and does an entirely different thing. While I _planned _to be cool and calm and not a freak, I actually _said_: "Ew,"

The soft word was only accented further by the silence that followed it. And Iggy would have heard it no matter how soft I would've said it.

His head snapped up from its previously occupation, i.e. sucking the skin from Ella's face, and looked around. He finally settled on a spot two feet from where I actually stood. I would've laughed if my heart and my lungs weren't being squeezed so tightly.

"Sorry!" I said, realizing I'd uttered 'ew' out loud. "I didn't- I mean- the door was open-"

Ella, I suppose, didn't know whether to be embarrassed or angry. She kind of narrowed her eyes, but at the same time every visible patch of her skin turned a bright red.

"I'll leave now," I said, but I couldn't bring myself to move. At the sound of my voice, Iggy began searching again, and finally his head pointed in my direction. He was blind, yet his confused, embarrassed gaze seemed to catch mine. Put on spotlight, my legs finally did what they were told and moved, but not before I heard him say, "Nudge?"

I left. I rushed down the stairs. The house didn't provide a large enough distance between us. Neither did the woods in the backyard. Or the Atlantic Ocean for that matter. My heart thudded persistently in my ears. It sounded way louder than it was supposed to. I placed my hand over my heart to make sure it didn't escape from under my ribcage. When my heart stopped pounding dangerously, I made my way to the living room and slowly sat on the couch. I sank back into the pillows trying to make sense of the illogical. Illogical to me at least.

My head wouldn't quit replaying that awful scene. I saw the image of both of them, and then I heard my stupid self rambling on and on. I should've just _left_. I shouldn't have stared like they were some kind of show. _Now Playing, Iggy and Ella: A Romance._

Confession: I have a crush on Iggy.

I have had a crush on Iggy, unknown and kept secret to all. Seeing him tangled up with Ella _hurt_. I debated in my mind whether or not to tell Max. Would she care? Or would this new, more optimistic Max just be overly thrilled that her sister-by-blood and her brother-by-wings were getting along so well?

Unable to bear it if Max offered her blessing to the new couple, I ignored the backyard where I knew Max and Fang were talking and instead tried to tune back into the television. I couldn't.

I waited for Iggy or Ella to come down, embarrassed and apologizing for what I saw. They'd give me sympathetic looks and explain that it was a complete mistake. In fact, Iggy hated Ella. _Ella_ came onto _him_. It was this complete misunderstanding, and it was obvious that Iggy was in love with me and...

My fantasy wound to a stop as the minutes piled up and they still hadn't come down. Maybe they were... Crap. Shut-up Nudge. The TV obviously wasn't helping to halt the constant stream of worry going on in my head. I turned it off and tried to find something interesting in my bag.

I stretched the draw strings open, and peered in at all my belongings. Being on the run made it so that all our possessions had to be things that we could carry. Fang had his laptop and I had... I reached into the bag and pulled out a composition notebook that I'd forgotten was even there. I looked at the flamboyantly decorated cover and recognized it as my diary from last year. This was back when I thought that if I ever became famous, people would beg me for an autobiography. Why not start sooner? I recorded every breath, movement, and nose hair. I opened the notebook and my eyes fell on the date. December 31st. Coincidence? _Today_ was December 31st. I smiled. What happened a year ago today?

I looked down at the paper in question and two words followed by an excessive amount of exclamation points caught my eye.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Whose birthday? Mine apparently.

Today, December 31st, was my birthday. I remember we each got to pick out our birthday because the real days were unknown. I thought it would be beyond awesome to be a "New Years" baby, so I scheduled my birthday for Midnight, Jan 1st. But we always celebrated it on Dec 31st, and at 12:00 instead of yelling out Happy New Year the Flock would all proudly exclaim "Happy Birthday Nudge!"

My heart fell. I read the excerpt to myself. Last year they went all out, they doubled the preparations. I got no presents, but we threw an awesome party. Just the 6 of us. A family. Max, Fang, Iggy, the Gasman, Angel and me, Nudge.

I forced my eyes to lift from the page and circle the living room. Dr. Martinez had gone all out also. Not because it was my birthday but because it was her first New Year's with her family complete. Yeah, _her_ family. Not mine. Mine was broken. Or at least it felt that way to me.

Streamers hung everywhere. A giant sandwich platter sat at a decorated table. I'd been hearing about this party for days. It had bothered me a little then, but now that I remembered that it was my birthday I was furious.

"Angel" I said. I challenged myself to recite the Flock's birthdays one by one, proving that if I could remember _their_ birthdays, it was pathetic that they could not remember mine.

"Angel," I repeated, "September 1st. The Gasman: August 11th, Iggy: May 11th. Fang July 1st. Max: February 22nd." I checked the dates in my newly found notebook, but even before finding clarification in the written word, I _knew_ that I'd named the right days. And there they were, in my excited large scrawl. We'd thrown grand bashes for them too.

I tried to console myself: Not two weeks ago had we just barely survived an Itex showdown. We blew up the place and got kids from around the _world _to join our cause.

Correction: Max and Fang did that. The others and I had just acted as side kicks. I winced while remembering Max's battle with Omega, and how I'd just stood at the sidelines, eyes wide, feeling helpless because there was nothing I could do for her. Did I really expect the Flock to forget that and instead rush in eagerly to throw me a _party_?

Selfishly, I realized that I did.

As tears began to incessantly spill down my face, I finally understood: I didn't matter. This was even more like a slap in the face than finding Iggy and Ella. Actually, they were part of the reason I realized this. If I could be replaced that easily...

I contorted my face, squeezing my eyes shut to try and stop the flow of tears. In my head I ran through the entire Flock and their relationship to one another, trying to convince myself that I fit in _somewhere_. Somewhere.

Angel was Max's baby. She'd played a major role in tricking Itex and the school. When Angel disappeared, we rushed immediately, no questions asked, to save her.

The Gasman was Angel's blood and Iggy's partner-in-crime/best friend. If the Gasman left, Angel would cry for ages and Iggy, blind or not, would rush to save him.

Iggy: after the breakdown at Anne's last year we'd all been paying special attention to him. We all constantly told him how much we cared about him. And then, when he went back to his "family", we all felt broken. Like a wing had been ripped off our backs. Incomplete. Iggy was important.

Fang was obvious. Those looks Max gave him? Those looks he gave her? If those two were ever separated again there'd be hell.

And Max. God, we'd all be dead if it weren't for Max. She held us together. We all needed her. She was like our mother, she was the one that kept us fed and clothed and _safe_. Without her my hide wouldn't be here.

So where did that leave me?

Nudge: Age 11 (12 tonight at midnight). Three years younger than Max, Fang and Iggy. Three years older than the Gasman. Max reserved a special place for Angel in her heart, Iggy had the Gasman and Fang had Max. who did I have? Where did I belong? With the older members of the flock, or the younger ones? Did I even belong at all?

Reticent, as if on autopilot, I lifted the remote and turned the TV off. I put my notebook back in the bag and hoisted it on my shoulders. I walked through the kitchen, down the hall way, and to the front door. My chocolate brown wings were happy to be let out of their sockets and eager to fly. And fly I did.

If it was that easy for Max and the others to replace me, to over look me, then did I really belong in the Flock? I'd been feeling _something_ all this time. Something to make me reclusive and irritable and angry at the world. This was it. But figuring it out and understanding _why_ did answer the question of how to get rid of it. Flying helped, but the time you could stare blankly into sky had limits, and I knew that eventually I would have to go back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks so much to all who reviewed and who said that they liked it. Thank you to: Flamingflie, praypray, Dreamer878, Sierra Jade Faerie, and MoonStarWithWings. Ha ha, I'm getting all mushy in the Author's Note but in the actual story I put Nudge through all kind of crap.**

**Disclaimer: I own diddly.**

**Taking Off: A Nudge Story**

Chapter Two

I wanted to return to the Martinez house to find everyone in hysterics because they couldn't find me. I wanted for Max to welcome me with a hug and anxious glances. "I was so worried," she'd say, "you were gone for so long."

Even _Fang _would crack a smile in relief that I was all right.

Iggy would immediatley forget about whatever happened with Ella. He would sweep me in his arms and tell me how much he adored me.

But that was just fantasy, and the reality I flew into was completely different. Judging from the lack of frantic yelling, my absence hadn't even been noticed. I entered the hallway bracing myself to be grabbed by an anxious Flock member, but the hallway I walked into disappointed me. The hall mocked me, quiet except for a faint laughter. If they were all so worried, then they wouldn't be laughing. I tried not to think "If I _mattered_ they wouldn't be laughing." Instead I pushed the thought far, far back in my mind and proceeded into the house.

I walked into the kitchen. I saw no Happy Birthday banners. It surprised me how much I expected to see some. It surprised me how much I was hurt when I didn't. Again I pushed at the bad thoughts from my mind, only they were so strongly rooted that they wouldn't leave. These dark feelings that were so attached to me only grew stronger when I saw Angel, Dr. Martinez, Ella and Max in aprons having a flour fight.

They'd been baking, obviously. I guessed that they were done with the actual mixing because the oven was turned on and flour flew with a gusto. No one was spared. Max's light hair was sprinkled with the white stuff, but she didn't seem bothered that she was a mess. Even when Ella took a fistful and dumped it on her, Max only laughed and recoiled with a handful of flour of her own.

It was a few minutes before someone noticed me. Even then it was Angel and she threw flour in my face. Lovely.

"Hey. What're you doing?" I asked.

Ella, Dr. Martinez and Max all gave me a look like they'd been caught in the act. Then they all shared a stealthy glance and laughed.

"Nothing," Max giggled.

She _giggled_. I had never heard Max giggle before. Max did not giggle. _I_ giggled. I had giggling fits, even when nothing was funny. But Max was our fearless, strong leader and seeing her giggle, seeing her with her guard down just seemed wrong to me. The Nudge-Is-Mad-o-Meter rose a few points.

"We're making cookies, Nudge." Dr. Martinez smiled warmly.

I waited for someone to invite me to join. Or maybe Angel had already, in an odd way, invited me to join by throwing flour in my face. I saw some had spilled on the counter. I picked it up and threw it in Ella's face. Instead of throwing some back and starting another all out flour fight, Ella threw me an annoyed look.

Dr. Martinez cleared her throat and said, "We'd better get this cleaned up," in a kind of embarrassed way.

Max and Ella agreed. They both grabbed cloths and began to wipe up the mess they'd made.

My face felt hot. What the heck had I done that for? I made my exit. Once I was a safe distance away, I slapped my forehead. I don't know who I was more furious at. _Me _for believing they wanted me in their fight. Or _them_for stopping the fun just as soon as I got there. Like they had an exclusive club and as soon as someone not in on the secret caught a glimpse of it, they had to stop immediately. I thought back to how stupid I was. How many times, Nudge? I asked myself. How many times do you have to make a complete fool of yourself in a day before you _learn_?

I tried to shake it off, but it was like every bad thing that had happened today had a Velcro attachment and wouldn't let go. I was left still thinking about it when I heard a loud bang from the backyard. I quickly concluded it was the Gasman and Iggy messing around with fireworks. No doubt half the house would be burned before this holiday was over with them in charge of explosives. I grinned in spite of my current mood and passed through the sliding door to the outside.

My foot wasn't one inch out of the doorway before I was bombarded with sparks, colors and the loud sputter that meant _No Good_.

"_Gazzy_," Fang warned.

At the crackle of the fireworks, I'd taken a giant leap backwards and landed on my tush. I picked myself up as I saw Iggy bound over to me.

His fingers brushed my wings which I hadn't bothered to tuck back in.

"Uh, Nudge?" Iggy asked. A blush appeared across his usually pale cheeks. For a brief moment I relished that he was blind because otherwise he would've seen the intense red I'd become.

"About-- about what you saw earlier," His fingers fidgeted nervously with the explosive in his hand, and he bit his lip, unsure how to phrase the words delicately enough.

"I won't tell Max," I said knowing what he was leading up to.

"Thanks," he answered grinning.

We stood there; the awkward silence couldn't have been more obvious to both of us.

"So... embarrassing, huh?" Iggy laughed nervously.

I knew Iggy was waiting for me to say something, to offer my blessing or maybe to tease him a little bit. But that wouldn't happen. How could I tease him playfully as though it didn't matter to me whether or not he and Ella became... whatever they were becoming? How could I act like I was okay with this? And offer my blessing? No way.

Iggy opened his mouth to say something, and I panicked on what it would be. To make the awkwardness end, or at least to make it so that I was able to run far, far away from it, I interrupted him and hurriedly said, "Don't blow yourself up. Bye," and made for an exit.

Why did I leave? I questioned myself, closing the sliding door. Maybe he was about to explain, maybe he was going to tell me that he and Ella had decided to call it quits. Maybe, but probably not.

I started for upstairs. My foot had just propelled me off the second stair when I met someone I had yet to encounter that day: Jeb. It wasn't like Jeb had ever paid me any special attention. His eyes had always been for Max, and he had never singled me out. Even so, as I walked past him on my way upstairs, the look of total indifference on his face hurt.

Indifference. Not "better off without you" but not "we desperatley need you" either. It's as though even if I disappeared, dropped off the edge of the Earth, nothing would change. It wouldn't be this great loss. I contemplated leaving. Just packing my one bag and heading off. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not yet. In my mind they still had one more chance to redeem themselves, one more chance to prove that I was still a part of their family. They had until midnight. When the whole world would scream "Happy New Year" if none of them screamed "Happy Birthday" I was taking off.

* * *

It's stupid, but before I learned to fly, I was deathly afraid of high places. It was always the fear that I'd fall, and plunge to my death. I was always made up excuses on why I would need to skip flying with the others, until they became so elaborate and see-through that Max had enough. Max told me that there was nothing to be afraid of. She even lifted me up with her wings and took me flying around. True, she couldn't lift me that high, but it was still what led me past my fears.

I'd never liked being alone with only my voice for company either. I preferred being with my flock talking nonstop. And although occasionally Iggy or Fang or somebody would tell me to but a cork in it (and other things not so G rated), my constant stream of chatter had become a Nudge trademark. I'd never realized how much I did talk until I stopped talking, and then I was quick to fill the silence.

So how crazy was it that I found myself sitting on the roof alone that night?

It was eleven o'clock. The party had officially started ages ago and by now the news that the New Year was one hour away had infected everyone with a buzz of happiness and anticipation. If my mood was different I'd be right there joining them. But instead I perched on the rooftop quietly observing each one of them.

Was this how Fang felt? He was quiet, too. Was this what quiet people did in their time, when they were in the company of not-so-quiet people? Did Fang observe people, noting the strange things that they did?

I'd been on the roof for nearly half and hour watching my Flock. Every one of them grinned happily, absorbing the zeal of the night's air into everything they did. Not one of their faces were mysterious or mischievous, the kind of face that one puts on before throwing a surprise birthday party for their sister. I know what you're thinking. You're staring at the pathetic girl on the roof who still holds onto lost strands of hope that her family hasn't forgotten her birthday. In fact, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it but part of the reason I was up on the roof was the fact that I was giving them a chance to set everything up. They couldn't very well set up a "surprise" party if I was there to supervise it, could they?

No matter how hard I tried to focus on everyone else, my eyes kept going back to Iggy. Or Iggy and Ella because whether I liked it or not they were a pair. Why had Iggy asked me not to tell Max? It was completely obvious that they were "together". What with their not-so-secret kiss behind the big tree...

I stayed up there until just before 12:00, just before the end of the old year, when I gave up all but the tiniest bit of hope. 11:59, I thought to myself seeing the big digital clock Jeb had set up. One more minute.

I landed by the food table taking note of the fact that there was nothing left. I smiled remembering how Gazzy had pigged out on those finger sandwiches and how Iggy had yelled at him to leave something for the rest of the world. God, I'd miss them when I... No. I couldn't think like that. I couldn't think that the Flock would forget. They still had one minute right? They could still save themselves.

The desperation I felt and the importance of this one minute made me want to fling my arms wide and scream that it was my birthday just so they'd say "Happy Birthday" when the clock hit 12:00. Then I'd tell myself that they _did_remember, with a little help. Or I'd give them hints. Not subtle ones, they obviously couldn't handle those. No. Maybe I'd spell "Nudge's Birthday Is Tonight" out with the jelly beans and then act surprised when someone pointed it out. "Isn't _that_a coincidence...?"

"You've been quiet,"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. How did he do that? I turned around and nearly fell in an effort to avoid crashing into the suddenly there birdkid. Fang had been working on his stealth tactics, apparently, because he'd been five centimeters away from me for who knows how long and I hadn't noticed.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, his dark eyes centered on me.

I've always thought Fang was a big sweetie at heart. I mean Max wouldn't have fallen in love with him if he wasn't, right? His eyes, even though they were a dark, almost black, brown, were soft and they made me want to confide in him. Actually, I wanted to hug him. I wanted to grab him and squeeze tightly. He noticed. Someone noticed. I wasn't so useless that nobody cared. Fang _noticed._ For a second I turned back into my bubbly self. I bounced, _literally_. An unexpected smile flashed across my face.

I shouldn't have smiled. Fang's look of concern turned to one of relief. "Good, you're smiling," he said. "For a minute there I thought something was wrong."

"No! There _is_! There _is_ something wrong!" I wanted to yell. But before I could get a word out Ella shouted, "TEN!"

The Countdown. _Crap_. Shut up Ella, I wanted to say. Fang was onto it, Fang could figure it out. He just needed more time.

But suddenly it wasn't just Ella. Suddenly everyone joined in. Their voices were loud and I bet reached until the end of the great forest. Fang gave me a small smile and his voice was added with the others.

"SIX!"

In six seconds I would know.

"FIVE!"

It no longer mattered whether Fang had noticed my funk, in five seconds my decision would be made.

"FOUR!"

Suddenly I wanted to stop the world. I wanted to break the clock. I wanted Time to just _freeze_ for a moment because this might actually be my last four seconds with my Flock.

"THREE!"

Because what if they didn't remember? And what if Fang noticing me feeling like crap was a _fluke_? What if they didn't really care? Three seconds. In three seconds I'd know.

"TWO!"

Two seconds. Just two seconds that were not nearly long enough. I wanted to spend forever with my Flock, two seconds wouldn't suffice.

"ONE!"

Well...?

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!"

All 8 people at the party wished the world a happy new year. Not one person wished me a happy birthday.

It was over. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't give them anymore time to fill the gaping hole that had appeared in the middle of my chest. The decision had been made. I was leaving the Flock.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: ha ha. I had a brief moment of evil-ness when I thought I should let my faithful readers suffer. I mean, so many other authors on fanfiction have made me suffer salivating over when their next update would be, and I thought, "Whoa. Now _I_ have the power". ::cue evil laugh:: But then the evil subsided and, just because I had the next chapter written, I thought, what the heck, why not? and posted it. So here it goes. **

**Summary of this chapter: Nudge finally leaves whilst the others are partying into the New Year. She thinks they don't care, but what happens when the Flock realizes Nudge is gone? The first part of the chapter is in Nudge POV the second part is Max's.**

**Taking Off**

Chapter 3

With tears in my eyes I ran into the house. I faintly remember saying, "Bathroom" to Fang as an excuse. Not that I needed an excuse. Not that he cared. The last thing I heard before sliding the door closed was a chorus of, "Happy New Year"s, as everyone congratulated each other on having made it through another year alive. Gazzy and Iggy had set their fireworks off and were busy setting off some more. I had a brief thought. Maybe they'd set the fireworks to read, "Happy Birthday Nudge" in the sky. As I thought it I grew angry. With _myself_.

"Stop it!" I hissed out loud. "Stop setting yourself up! Stop giving yourself these false beliefs that they actually _care_ about you! They _don't_..." In the middle of my rant I'd started crying. Now I was choking on my words. but I had to get them out. I had to admit it to myself. And as much as it poisoned my lips, as much as it stung my ears I _had_ to say it. "They _don't_ care about me."

My heart pounded and my insides squeezed together. They really don't. They really don't care. The only reason I was still there was because I had wings, not because they actually wanted me. I mean, how many times had I been called a nuisance?

"Stop crying, Nudge." I told myself, but I didn't sound all that convincing. I certainly didn't sound like someone who was going to leave, on her own, without the Flock to back her up. Because I was leaving. I was through with this place. Hadn't I been anxious to go? Ever since we came here I'd been itching to spread my wings and fly. So now I was going to do that. And sure Max and Iggy and the others wouldn't be behind me, but all the more reason to buck up, right? All the more reason to _stop crying_.

If I were going to go out on my own I would have to be like Max. Not like this new giggling Max, but like the old her. The one that was fearless. The one that literally insulted death. Yes. I'd be like her.

It took me a while to stop crying. When I did I checked to make sure no one had looked inside the house for me. No one had. I didn't let that bother me though, I'd already decided I was done with the flock. Instead I picked myself up and forced my mind to go clear so I could think.

Why did I hate this place? I wasn't loved.

Where could I be loved? What had I been longing for, even jealous because of, the longer I stayed here? What did I want most in the world? I wanted a family.

Suddenly an idea formed in my mind. I needed somewhere to go, right? I couldn't just leave here running blind. I needed a firm grasp of somewhere to go, and now I had that.

Excitement ran through me. Yes. _Yes_.

I got off the couch so fast that I stumbled. But I didn't let that faze me. I picked myself up. Days. It had been days since I felt like this. _Happy_ at the prospect of going somewhere where I'd belong. _Ecstatic_ at the thought of being somewhere where people loved me, where people _needed_ me. Was I going to let a fall stop me? No.

I wanted to talk. How weird was that? The feeling that had taken me all my life but then left me for the past few days had suddenly come back again. I wanted to talk a mile a minute. I wanted to scream out my plan. I tuned out the noises coming from the backyard, because that didn't matter to me anymore. Not that it didn't hurt, but I had bigger things to do. Where I was going they would love me ten times as much than the occasional glance I got from the Flock.

I ran up the stairs, so fast and so elated it felt like flight. I stepped in Ella's room for one second to grab my bag and fill it with all of my stuff. Then I headed to Dr. Martinez's room where Jeb had set up a desk and a bed for him to sleep in. I ignored one half of the room and headed to Jeb's desk. A laptop computer and a printer connected to it sat on the top of the desk. Papers spread all around it. I walked closer to the desk, sat down at the chair, and looked at the papers with mild interest. It was Jeb's Save The World Plan. How he was going to use Max to infiltrate the school. I thought of looking through them even further but then thought, it doesn't apply to me. I no longer care about Saving the World, because I'm no longer a part of Max's flock. Besides, that wasn't what I was at the desk for.

I lifted up the laptop's screen and breathed. I raised my fingers up to the screen and felt the information flow through me. In seconds I knew what web pages Jeb had last visited. I knew his last bid on eBay. I knew all of his passwords. I typed his ID and his password and was logged on in a few more seconds. A few seconds after _that_ I had located all of the files that I needed. I pressed the print button.

While my papers were printing I looked through Jeb's briefcase. A manila folder with my name on it sat in line with the others. Take it? Sure. Maybe it could help me.

The papers were done printing. I had all the files I needed. I now knew my destination. Fairport, Virginia. I knew her address. I knew her name, her company and all she'd been doing for the past 12 years. I stuffed the papers in my bag and took it all in, what I was going to do.

For a second it didn't seem worth it. I shouldn't leave my Flock, not even for something I've wanted to do for forever. But then I pushed that thoughts. No more old Nudge. No more "maybes" or "whatifs". It was time for "definitelys" and "no doubts". I wasn't going to linger on the idea that maybe I was wrong and they did care. And I _wasn't_ going to cry.

I pushed back the tears and ignored that stupid pain in the throat you get right before a big sobfest. Instead I threw the bag on my shoulders and headed downstairs.

Food, I'd need food. I went to the refrigerator and told myself I wasn't stealing. I took some peanut butter, jelly and bread, and popped a few juice boxes in there for good measure. Looking at the stuffed fridge and the fully loaded freezer, thought, what the heck, and took some of those delicious finger sandwiches. and Once my bag was stocked with things to hold me for a week or so, however long the trip would take, I thought of something _big_ I was forgetting.

Money.

But no. I couldn't steal from Max. It was _her_ card. If it were the Flock's it would be different, but it wasn't. All I had was $20 from when Max had last doled out money. I sighed. It wasn't much, hardly anything at all, but $20 would have to last me.

I considered writing a note. But that would be too suicidal. People who were about to off themselves left notes. So what did people who were just going away forever leave? I didn't want them to forget about me. I didn't want them to go, two weeks from now, "Oh look, Nudge left. So Fang, do you want to pass the butter?" So what to leave to them to show them how much they'd hurt me?

And suddenly, it came to me. What I could leave. It was almost too perfect. Leave this, I thought taking it out of my book bag, and they'll _certainly_ get how I was feeling these past 5 days. But I didn't want them to find it right away, so I hid it in a place where it couldn't be noticed so easily.

Finally I was ready to leave. My stomach clenched.

This is it. I wasn't even going to say good-bye. The only family I'd ever known and I was just going to leave? I knew that I didn't want to leave. But if I stayed there any longer I'd turn emo and begin writing songs about how much I wanted to kill myself. I knew I'd only leave if I got angry. So I thought of all the crap that had happened. I thought of how Max had ignored me. How they'd kicked me out of their club, their exclusive blood club.

_Blood is thicker than water_.

Yeah, Max? Is blood thicker than water? What about all those years we spent on the run? What about that? Cast me aside just because she's your flipping _blood sister_?

And Iggy. Oh, God _Iggy_. A picture of them kissing in her bedroom, and then another of them kissing behind the tree appeared suddenly in my mind. And he had no idea how it affected me. He had no idea that him kissing her made me feel like the biggest piece of crap. How could he not? Wasn't it flipping _obvious_? Had _nobody_ noticed?

I got mad. I got mad at Iggy for kissing Ella, for liking her better than me. I got mad and Max for replacing me, who had been her sister for years, with Ella who had been her sister for a few _days_. I got mad at Fang for not letting me finish my sentence. I got mad at Jeb for not noticing me just because I wasn't _Max_. I got mad at the world. I was feeling like crap, but at least now I was angry enough to leave. Now I wouldn't think twice about going, not with so many strikes against this place.

"I HATE YOU!!!" I yelled, because I had to say something, "I HATE ALL OF YOU!"

And then I left. I'll admit it I looked back. I was pathetic and I looked back almost half a dozen times. I couldn't leave, I couldn't bear to tear myself away from the people I'd loved for years. But then I'd just get mad at them and I'd fly a little bit farther. I'd continue that pattern of not wanting to leave, but then forcing myself to hate them, until the little house was no longer in sight and I knew there was no longer a possibility of going back.

**Max POV**

Okay. Don't Panic. There is obviously a logical reason for why Nudge hasn't been seen in the past 2 days. _Obviously_. It's not that she's been taken. We surely would've noticed a bunch of whitecoats. She _can't_ have been taken. Not my Nudge. Not my little sister.

But then, there's no other explanation. Itex must've taken Nudge. She wouldn't have left on her own. That wasn't even a possibility worth mentioning.

I couldn't think. I remembered the last time one of the Flock had been stolen from me. I remembered when Iggy had gone back to his "real" parents. It sucked. The Flock was torn. _I_ was torn. And then, before when Angel had been taken from me. I couldn't take it. There were so many times when I thought I was going to lose one of my flock, so many times when I thought I'd lose it because they were gone. Was I losing it because Nudge was gone too?

We all met up in the kitchen. Nervous wasn't the word for it. I was almost over the edge. The only thing holding me together was the faint feeling of Fang's hand on mine. Otherwise my head would've blown to bits.

I couldn't show it of course. Not with Angel bawling her eyes out. Not with the Gasman over there trying to look brave but failing miserably. Even Iggy was having a tough time coping. He _couldn't_ cope. He was shaking uncontrollably and Ella was beginning to look scared. I had to be the leader. This five day vacation from reality was great and all, and I was so hoping it wouldn't end, but it had. I just wish Reality hadn't cut me so hard.

"I don't think Itex took her," Fang said softly.

I could hear it in his voice. He was freaked too. Shocked was more like it. I don't think he quite grasped the fact that Nudge was gone.

"But that would have to mean that she _left_. Of her own free will." I'd dismissed the idea early. Why would Nudge leave?

But Fang nodded. He shook his head a little to get rid of the shock and his voice lost some of its spaciness. But even still he looked hit.

"I think Nudge left. There was something up with her..."

"Nudge wouldn't _leave_," I hissed. My voice took a shrilly edge at the end. But really, it was a ridiculous notion. Why would Nudge leave? Why would she willingly leave the family she'd had for all her life? Fang was on something. All that food he'd had on New Year's had missed his stomach and went to his head. He didn't _mean_ it. That Nudge could've... no. No way.

"She wasn't herself," Fang argued.

"What reason would she have to leave?" I think I was starting to cry. My voice was getting high and squeaky and I think I was about to lose it. I tried to calm myself down. I tried to take a deep breath, but ended up choking on air.

"Maybe she felt she was missing something..."

What was Fang getting at? He knew something or was guessing at something. That's what his look said. He was just waiting for me to get it.

"Do you think she went to find her mom?"

Fang's look had intensity down pat. "Arizona..." he murmured.

I shook my head furiously. "That was a loss!" I cried desperately. "You told me that the woman you found wasn't even close!"

Fang couldn't comment on that. Jeb burst into the room panicking.

"Someone has been through my files!" he cried. He was sweating. His breathing was ragged and he looked very panicked. He thrust his computer in everyone's face and showed Dr. Martinez his briefcase with one section missing in the files. At first was angry. What the heck did we care about his computer? One of our family was missing, we didn't have time for this.

But then my eyes focused on the computer. "Nudge," I said finally. Everyone turned to look at me. "She has a connection with computers." Even as I said this, I didn't really believe what I was saying. Nudge wouldn't leave. Nudge _couldn't_ have left. Someone else went through Jeb's files. I looked around at the many sorrowful faces of my Flock. But no one looked guilty. There was an actual possibility...

I was shaking. I leaned against the wall to try to steady myself. Fang brushed my fingers with his as if asking if I was okay. Okay? No I wasn't _okay_. Nudge... was gone.

"What--" realizing my throat sounded scratchy I cleared it and continued, but not without that painful knot that comes before you cry, "what were in those files?"

Jeb placed Nudge's folder back in the briefcase and pulled out one with my name emblazoned on the cover.

"Date of birth, parent information, notes from when we were watching you--"

"Did you say parent information?" my skin crawled with the possibilities that a file with parent information could hold to a bird kid wondering about her mom. I didn't want this to be happening, but Jeb nodded.

"As much as we have been observing you 6 we have also been watching your parents. For research. Just to make sure there are no genetic--"

"Yeah whatever," I didn't have time to listen to Jeb's mutant freak theories. I had to find Nudge. I had to save her. "So does that mean you know where Nudge's mom is? Does that mean--" my heart swelled with hope, "that you know where to find her?"

My fingers fidgeted with impatience and my tone was rushed. My thoughts? Nudge couldn't survive on her own. The entire Flock could barley survive on their own. Jeb had only allowed us to leave if we swore that we'd stay together to protect each other. He'd wanted us to stay a few days for safety purposes and he hadn't wanted to let us go because he _knew_ Itex would be on our tails. None of them could handle Itex or the School's cronies alone. I could resist them to a limit, but completely take them down? No. And Nudge wasn't like me.

"No," Jeb's response snapped me out of my thoughts, but it wasn't the one I wanted. It wasn't the one I needed to hear.

"No?" My fists clenched into balls and my wings tensed. "What the flip do you mean '_no'_?"

The flock was all reeling from this new development. Angel's tears seemed to be flowing way to hard for her little body to produce them. Iggy's face went hard and the Gasman just looked scared. Frightened for his sister out there, alone.

"What if they kill her?" he asked his voice matching his body language revealing he felt small and vulnerable.

"They won't," I tried to assure him.

I lowered myself to Angel's height and wrapped her up in my arms. Whether I was comforting Angel or she was comforting me I couldn't tell, but I knew we both needed a hug.

"They won't," I repeated, "because we're going after her,"

"How?" Iggy spat out. He was shaking too. I don't think he knew how to handle this, and I think he wanted to cry out but couldn't. And I wanted to wrap my arms around him too, but was afraid he might push me away. Right then he looked angry and scared, instead of looking vulnerable like Angel and Gazzy. "We don't know where she is. We don't know where she's going. We'll be flying without a freaking clue while she might be..."

Iggy was afraid to finish the sentence, but every Flock member in the room knew what the last word would be.

"This is different from when Angel was kidnapped," Fang had entered the conversation. While his statement was true, I still flinched. Instinctively I tightened my grip around Angel. We didn't talk about that, unless we had to. It was a subject that was taboo because of the way it made us all feel.

"This time Nudge is alone. She's out there and, let's face it at least the School was protection from the other disasters of the world. Now Nudge has no protection from Itex or natural difficulties."

I glared at Fang. "Thanks for pointing it out," the sarcasm was obvious and meant to pierce him, but he didn't react at all. Iggy did.

"It's TRUE!" he cried. "The School now wants us all dead. We aren't assets to them anymore. If she runs across the School and any of the freak mutants they have now... And we all know Nudge isn't the best fighter what with her love of all things living."

The Gasman's blue eyes widened. "She's got no chance," he said is lip quivering. I extended my arm to reach for him to join the hug. My body wanted to reject the news. I wanted to throw myself at Fang and Iggy and tell them to take their words back. But most of all I wanted to find Nudge. And when I did... oh God she was in for it. Running away? _Now_ of all times, when Itex wanted us extinct. Was she insane? I was afraid that I was shaking with the same rage Iggy was and I had to stop myself. If not be cool for the reason that I needed to have a clear head to think of a plan, be cool for the fact that both Angel and the Gasman had already lost it and Iggy was on the verge.

I squeezed both of my babies tight and wished Iggy weren't blind so he could see the meaningful glances I was throwing at him. I took one look at Fang who looked crushed. He'd half turned away from everybody. I couldn't look at the heartbroken bird-kids anymore. I turned to Jeb.

"Is there anything we can do?" I asked. I could hear it in my voice. The heft of this question. Was I going to lose one of my flock again?

"I had the backup files," Jeb said, "the real files are in the School."

I think my heart stopped beating.

**A/N: While the Flock are trying to deal with Nudge and her disappearance AND the fact that they might have to enter the headquarters of the very people trying to off them, Nudge realizes that being alone is boring but also incredibly dangerous.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Well, I hope you're happy. My fingers have fallen off with the constant typing I've done to get this chapter to you. You ask how I'm typing this Author's Note? well... I haven't thought of an answer for that one. Anyway, here goes the fourth installment. This one's mostly Max and Iggy, but it starts off Nudge. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Taking Off**

Chapter 4

My wings tipped into a graceful dive and I struggled to not let out a triumphant: Wahoo! I was free. The night sky danced around me and while I knew I still wasn't high enough I felt like a star was just an arm's length away.

I'd flown for hours and hours, and then fallen asleep in some trees. When I woke up I was energized and, dare I say it, _happy_. It was weird. It was as though my dark cloud had been lifted just by getting the Martinez house out of my sight. Only... I was glad I was far away from the memories of the last week, but I wasn't glad to be away from my flock. I wasn't glad that I could no longer hear the soft carefree laughter of Angel or Gazzy. While that laughter had haunted me in that house I began to miss it out here.

Okay, for two seconds I felt free. Now I felt cold. And lonely. And... _bored_.

Who knew, right? Who knew that independence could equal eternal boredom? I should've brought Total along with me, I thought looking down at the city lights. Total would make snide comments, want to sleep against my chest in an effort at sexual harassment but at least, I reasoned, he'd be better than the never-ending boredom that had consumed me the last two days.

And he would've been a shoulder to cry on, I thought sadly, for the nights when I cried myself to sleep.

Crap, I thought in frustration. No, I am _not_ going to think of my weakness. I am _not_ going to remember those nights. Instead, I am going to fly. Only...

I'd been flying for forever. I flied all night and around the time the sun came up I went to bed. Then when I got bored with sleeping I flied some more. Not once had I taken a peek into the cities I flew over. Not once in the last two days had I sought human comfort, or even heard the voice of a human being. I had been a good girl, I had resisted the impulse. But the twinkling lights, the sounds below me grew even more tempting. And-- wait. Were those golden arches?

Stop Nudge. I ignored what was below me and instead looked around me for comfort. Or at least a distraction. But there was nothing but that dark beautiful blue and some dark clouds.

The silence bugged me. It poked and taunted me until I couldn't take it anymore. The only sound was the faint air whistle of my wings flapping. I scratched an itch that wasn't there only because the insane _openness_ of everything around me. I wished suddenly for Max's super speed. Then I could fly warped time to Fairport, Virginia and not have this aching silence.

But there WAS an aching silence. And I hungered for some human contact. Actually what I really wanted was my Flock. I wanted to talk to someone and have them respond back, instead of talking to air like a mad person. Even if it was just the cashier at a McDonald's...

But I couldn't. And I knew I couldn't. And it completely sucked that I couldn't, but if I went down there I would be risking the chance of someone seeing me. I would be risking it all. Itex was still looking for us to destroy us. And if they happened to be strolling in to whatever town that was, and if they happened to have a hunkering for a Big Mac and if they _happened_ to ask the cashier if they'd seen an African American girl with frizzy hair and if they _happened_ to have a picture...

My stomach interrupted my train of thought. Loud and obnoxious, it destroyed the silence of the night. It kind of surprised me and took my ears time to register the sound. I was hungry. Yes! Yes of course! This was the perfect excuse-- I mean, uh, I'm responsible for myself and I can't very well let myself die of starvation can I? And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were yummy and all, but they weren't really _substance_ now were they?

_Nudge, STOP_. My conscience suddenly had the nerve to appear. _You are making a completely rash and irresponsible decision that will only hurt you in the long run._

_Please_, I begged.

Isn't that funny? I was so bored and desperate for someone to talk to that I made up my own Mini-Nudge conscience.

She looked like me only bossier and, you know, mini. Her hands were on her hips and she floated in the air above me.

Mini-Nudge glared at me. _It's your own fault if Itex tracks you down and slaughters you. Don't come crying to me if you're dead by sunrise._

I waved her away. "Oh, what do you know, you're a figment of my imagination. Chicken Mc Nuggets here I come!"

I turned my wings so that I was flying down into the city. The lights became nearer and nearer. I landed behind a lamppost so I couldn't be seen, tucked in my wings and then walked out into the city lights.

People. I saw people. And they were _talking_. The urge to start up a conversation with a total stranger was strong, but I resisted it. I wanted to talk to that guy with the tattoo, maybe ask him a few questions on why he did he feel a naked-lady on his arm was a good life choice decision? I wanted to chat with the lady walking her dog and ask her if people frequently told her that her dog was ugly, and maybe she should consider getting a cuter one. Just seeing the faces of other people made me smile. Hearing their voices made me grin harder. And seeing those wonderful golden arches made me laugh out loud.

"Yes!" I made an impromptu pump of the fist and the dude with the tattoo raised an eyebrow.

Not wanting to be too conspicuous I made up a fake reason to be pumping my fist. "Uh," I racked my brain, "I just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico?"

Tattoo Guy's eyebrow lowered. He looked away from me and said, "Whatever,"

"Whatever"!!! Did you hear that? Did you? The first word spoken to me in 2 days! My first conversation in 2 days! And sure the guy probably thought I was under the influence but I was just overjoyed that we exchanged words.

_Do you see, Mini-Nudge?_ I asked my not-so-faithful companion. _I have been in this town not 5 minutes and already my spirits have been lifted. Just imagine how happy I'll be when I've sunk my teeth in that juicy... beefy..._

I practically ran to the McDonald's. I threw open the doors and inhaled the scent of grease and fries. Shuddering with happiness, I walked slowly into the restaurant. Practically floating to the counter I looked at the faces of the people around me.

I know what you are thinking. I know you are thinking, "Nudge how _could_ you, I thought you cared! I thought you were a vegetarian." Yea well I _am_. Off and on. On when I'd seen the poor squirrel alive before Fang roasted it. Off when I was faced with a decision. A wimpy, pathetic, hardly substantial enough salad. Or a Big Mac with everything on it? I had three of them puppies.

**Max POV**

I couldn't do what I wanted to do which was to sob loudly and fiercely in a dark room all alone. Iggy shut himself in Ella's room and together they had spell soft quiet talking and total silence. Angel had stopped crying hysterically but bother she and the Gasman wore a look of "She's dead" on their faces. It was like to everyone in the Flock, Nudge had already died. It felt like that to me.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts of Nudge's dead body lying somewhere, her blood spilled by the heartless hands of a Fly-boy.

Like I said, I wanted to cry in a dark room alone but instead I was in the debriefing room (kitchen) with Fang, Dr. Mar-- Mom and Jeb, my... dad.

I could easily enough call Dr. Martinez "Mom". After all, hadn't that been my wish all along? then again, a year ago before Itex screwed us our lives over again, I'd wished Jeb was my father. And now he sat in front of me. My dad. But too much hatred for him had boiled up inside of me for me to just let it go and call him "Dad". Plus there was the whole Ari thing...

"Where's Iggy?" Mom asked. "Shouldn't he, as one of the oldest, be here to make decisions?" Mom looked from me to Fang, "Or is that job limited to you?"

My face flushed. How did she--? A few days ago Iggy had asked that same question. He was sick of being grouped with the younger kids. He'd wanted to be treated like me and Fang, he _was_ the same age. How could I have explained why me and Fang work so well together? How could I have explained the complete trust we had and how we understood each other so clearly without words?

I couldn't offer this explanation to Iggy and I certainly couldn't give it Dr.Martinez. So I simple said, "He's with Ella." I would've been curious about what they were doing in her room. For the past week the were stuck like glue, bonded at the hip. I gave myself a note to tease him endlessly about it while we were in the air. But I knew this wasn't the time to point and sing, "Oooh, Iggy and Ella!" so I kept my comments to myself and asked them what we were going to do about Nudge. And the School.

"She erased the files on my computer," Jeb said. He lifted his silver light computer from its Itex case and placed it on the counter. "She took the hard copies. She made it so that even if we had a clue of what goal she had in mind, we could find her."

My heart dropped. It landed somewhere with my stomach and began twisting in knots. I didn't want to believe it even though the evidence had smacked us all in the face. This didn't seem like something Nudge would do, but there is was in black and white. The realization struck me so hard I actually started to cry. No sobfest, but a few tears that represented how much this realization hurt.

Nudge didn't want to be found.

**Iggy POV**

Ella's hand surrounded mine. I itched to snatch it away. Somehow, even though that very had had been caressing her back a few days earlier, her holding my hand didn't feel right.

For maybe the umpteenth time in my life I wished I could see. I wished I could see so I could bust the heck out of here and look for Nudge _my way_. Without Max ad her dictator like attitude, not Fang and his lack of attitude but me. I would maybe bring Gazzy along to help me with some explosives in case we faced the Itex idiots. After all, Nudge on her own without the Flock to protect her? She was a perfect target for some well placed punches and mutant fangs.

"What made her so stupid?" I said out loud. For a split second I wondered if it had anything to do with the scene she had witnessed earlier. I nixed that one quickly. No, Nudge had been out of character for a while now. I had _meant_ to ask what was wrong. I hadn't heard any streams of meaningless crap coming from her since our stay here. I noticed Ella's hand grip mine tighter and suddenly realized she was in the room too. She'd heard my question, but she hadn't answered it. I realized Ella had no idea of the importance of Nudge. In our short stay here they'd said maybe 2 words to each other. While Ella cared overwhelmingly for Max, she had no specific feelings for Nudge.

This irked me. How could she not? sure Ella wasn't one of the flock, but Nudge was lovable as soon as you met her. Sometimes her perkiness and endless smile annoyed the heck out of me. And man could that girl talk. But at other times I smiled, and I couldn't help but smile. Nudge was special. So rarely was she sad. But this week she _had_ been. She hadn't been herself. My mind kept jerking me back to that. She hadn't.

I felt Ella shift uncomfortably. The only lame thing she could think of to say was, "You okay?"

"No," I said bitterly.

I could feel her hand tense up. I didn't let go because that would be my only way to read her emotions. Right now she felt hurt and a bit taken aback. Like any of that was my fault. She shouldn't have asked such a stupid question.

I said "Sorry," but I wasn't. My mind was too preoccupied by Nudge to think much of Ella's feelings.

"That's okay," Ella's hand slightly loosened up but I could feel the falseness in her voice. She was putting on an act. She was pretending everything was all right. I HATED that.

"Y'know Iggy," she said coyly. Her thumb rubbed the outside of my hand. "I can take your mind off it,"

I could feel Ella shift as she leaned in, probably aiming her lips toward mine. I quickly jumped up, my face inflamed, partly from embarrassment but mostly from anger.

"Take my mind of her?" I snorted, "as if you could. You should know Ella, that this really isn't the time to make smoochy faces at each other!"

The bed squeaked. Ella's weight had shifted. She had a pouty tone of voice and I could almost see a pouty face. "I was only _trying_ to make you feel better, Iggy."

I loved that (sarcasm). I loved how she could make her ignorance out to be my fault.

"Didn't work," I spat out. There was a brief pause before Ella said, "Well what _can_ I do? Sit there watching you look pathetic?"

She probably meant it in a way that meant she sympathized with me. But I didn't want her sympathy and I didn't take to being called pathetic.

Noting that Ella's bed ran parallel to the door I back up a few spaces, my arms stretched to the back of me. When I had a hold of the door knob I let loose. I was surprised I hadn't attacked her right away.

"Save your sympathy for NUDGE. SHE'S the one who has to face a million something Erasers all while flying to what could very be the most disappointing part of her young life," I recalled my 3 day life with my "real" parents and snorted at the memory. "And that's _saying_ something. But you wouldn't know anything about that would you? You have no idea the _hell_ we've been through in our lives. No wonder you think a make out session could make me feel better. About losing Nudge whose been like a sister to me since Day 1? Not likely."

Perhaps my exit was a little on the dramatic side, but I had to make her see what I was feeling. Of course it would never work out with Ella. Not only was it my gut feelings that told me Ella just wasn't right for me, there was also the fact that she could _never_ understand. Especially about this. I realized as I turned the doorknob and pivoted out the door that she would never get how losing Nudge was like losing one of my arms, or my legs, or my _wings_. It _hurt_. My God it hurt. I placed one hand on the wall to steady myself and the other hand on my ever beating heart. The pain in my chest felt like someone had grabbed a hold of it and twisted it like fabric.

I made my way down the steps with one hand on the wall. As unfamiliar as this house was in 7 days I'd acquired enough knowledge to get to my destination. The debriefing room, aka the kitchen. We had to find Nudge. My chest would blow if we didn't.

I entered the kitchen and the heated discussion ceased. I used my hands in front of me to guide myself to a chair. My head, I turned forward. Even though I couldn't see anything I wouldn't give the pathetic expression of looking downward. (I am _not_ pathetic). I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, looking in what I hope was the general direction of somebody. Before they could say anything about my interrupting I stated my case.

"I'm going after her. I'm going to find Nudge,"

**Max POV**

"Well DUH, I said with a small smile. "Did you think we were just going to leave her out there?"

Iggy blushed. It wouldn't have been so amusing if he hadn't looked dead serious. Now, though, Iggy just looked sheepish. that didn't stop him from looking directly at me though. I didn't know if it was intentional or not but Iggy had set his gaze at the person directly across from him. I.E. me. I wanted to reach across the table and squeeze his hand for being so brave. But elastic limbs was not one of the freakish powers handed to us, so I was stuck giving him a meaningful look. Which was completely lost on him of course.

Jeb cleared his throat and we all snapped back to business. Mushy feeling gone I asked the group, "Does anyone have any idea why?" It hit me again what we'd been discussing. Nudge covering her trail and doing it well.

Jeb's eyebrows went up. "I'm surprised you would ask this Max. You're the one closest to her. Shouldn't you have some idea as to her motive?"

It should have been true. I'd known Nudge all of my mutant life. I knew her better than anybody. But I had no idea why she'd just leave. Especially after what had just happened with Itex on our avian-hybrid butts.

"She could've asked us," I said fumbling on my words. It was lame and I knew it. She _could've_ asked us, but she didn't. "We would've been there for her, right?" I looked to Fang for an answer. We would've been there, I was sure of it. Fang had other ideas.

"Last time she desperately wanted to find her mom, you wouldn't let her."

"We had to save Angel!" I snapped.

Fang nodded. His dark eyes met mine and made me feel foolish with his next statement. "Right. Then you had to save Angel, and now you have to save the world. Maybe she thought you'd see that as more important,"

I left my mouth hang open as if willing my mind for a snappy comeback. Would I had seen the world as more important? I wanted to say no. I wanted to say I put my Flock before everything else. Angel had been a valid reason, I'm sure Nudge forgave me for that. But as to this... Realizing my brain was being dumb at the moment and thus had nothing to say my mouth closed.

"She still could've told us what she wanted to do," Iggy snapped back angrily. "even if Max was preoccupied with saving the world stuff, someone else could've gone with her..." after a slight pause Iggy said, his voice slightly lowered, "_I_ would have gone with her."

Someone cleared their throat and our heads looked toward the door leading from the kitchen through the hallway to the stairs. Ella stood there holding a rough, worn, half filled composition notebook. The name "Nudge" was written on it in every color imaginable. My heart ached for the lost piece of my flock.

"I think," Ella said walking in to join the conversation, "I may have found something." Ella sat down after pulling a seat in between me and Mom. I felt a certain coldness from my half sister being directed at Iggy. Iggy, at the arrival of Ella, had turned his face to the floor. I couldn't see his expression.

I turned my interest to the composition notebook. It looked like an old diary of hers. I had fuzzy memories of her carrying it around with her everywhere and recording everything said by the Flock to the point where we got super annoyed. At first I questioned its importance but then Jeb grabbed in and flipped it the the last page with writing on it. He laid it out in the middle of the table for everyone to see. In unison we all leaned in to read what the missing bird-kid had written 2 days ago.

_Jan 1st. _

_They don't even notice. How could they not notice? But I'm leaving here. Tonight. I'm leaving and I'm gone forever. Or maybe just until the realize how much they need me._

_NuDgE_

**And how does the flock react to this diary entry? How do they react to the news that they've treated Nudge like complete crap for the past week? **

**to D-Reezy42: you CRIED? well, gosh. On the one hand I'm happy that my writing was apparently good enough to move you so far that you'd shed a few tears. On the other hand... you CRIED? Have I really been treating Nudge that badly? Don't worry! It will all end up nice in the end. Of course someone dies... mwa ha ha. Wouldn't you like to know who?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Did I make you sweat? Did I make you think that somebody in the Flock's going to die? Well, they're not. But somebody in the story is. Someone on the good side. Oh, and in here I explain how Iggy "sees" and I tried to make it scientifical but, um, I don't know how well that worked out. It made sense to _me_, but I don't know how much sense it makes in the real world. I think this is going to be the last post for a while, or at least I'm not going to post everyday. I'm going to focus on writing more of it.**

January 1st... that was 2 days ago. The night she left. Selfishly I grabbed the diary and flipped a few pages back.

"What's going on?" Iggy demanded. No one said anything. No one answered him. I was going to just read it to myself but the stares of the other 4 obviously meant they wanted me to read it out loud. Plus Iggy still hadn't a clue what was going on.

"December 31st..." I read, my voice cracking. What would I find? And what had that last excerpt been about? "Just until they realize how much they need me". We DO need you Nudge! It was painfully obvious by the tears in my eyes.

After clearing my throat and hoping I wouldn't break down again I continued.

"_December 31st: I almost can't take my eyes off the screen. I have to to write this of course, but my ears are still picking to hear every last bit of what's being said. Oh how I want to be her. Rory Gilmore has everything. She has a mom that loves her. And though her dad is absentee most of the time it's obvious he loves her too. And she has Jesse and Dean who are both obviously still in love with her. There's the little fact that Dean's getting married... but other than that she's perfect. Surrounded by love. She belongs. I would give up my wings to feel like I belong. I would gladly give up all of my posessions to feel loved. I bet nobody on Gilmore Girls would ever forget Rory's birthday--"_

I stopped. How could I go on? It wasn't just the fact that my eyes had doubled up with tears so I couldn't see. Or the fact that my hands were shaking so uncontrollably I could barely hold the journal. It was more like the fact that Nudge, my sister my _best friend_, felt unloved.

"That's crap." Iggy said. He didn't say "crap", but I didn't care. My emotions had flooded me leaving me unable to feel anything but confusion or overwhelming sorrow.

No one else bothered to correct him either so he continued on ranting. "That's total and complete CRAP. How could Nudge not know that we love her? Just because she doesn't have parents doesn't mean she doesn't have us. She's just being melodramatic that's all. Somehow she got it into her stupid head that we don't love her and she--"

"Be truthful," Fang interrupted. "How much attention have you paid to her in the past week we've been here?"

Again I was shocked by his scary ability to stay calm under the most nerve-wracking or moments. I could see the pain in his dark eyes and I could hear it in his voice. He sounded as though he were beating himself up for something.

"I have never ignored Nudge," I said. Whether my voice was dripping with anger at his question or anger at his calm, still face I didn't know. I didn't care. "I have NEVER made it seem like I didn't love her."

"What about the past week, Max?" Fang accused. I realized I'd picked myself up in emotion as Fang raised himself to my level. He continued to look me in the eyes. "What if Nudge felt like you were too preoccupied by your new family that you forgot about your old one? Namely: her."

My face flushed. I didn't dare steal a glance at Mom or Ella. Instead I sat down ashamedly. I sat on my hands and bit my lip. Then I closed my eyes in an effort to think back to the past week. I hadn't _ignored_ her, had I? I hadn't made it seem like I didn't want her around, had I? My new found mom and sister were great. I finally felt normal for a while, but I would _always_ beleive my true family lied with my flock. Why didn't she know this?

Fang had stayed standing. He reached across the table for the diary. His calm facade was broken as he picked it up. Him holding something had accentuated the slight shaking of his hands.

I hadn't known what to do with my hands so I'd sat on them, but suddenly I felt fidgety. I freed my hands and put my head in them. I wanted to put them over my ears and scream "La la la!" at the top of my lungs... but as much as I didn't want to hear about it, I _did_. I wanted to know exactly what it was I'd done so that when I found her I could wrap my arms around her, give her a giant bear hug and assure her that she was wrong, I DID love her. I no longer wanted to pulverize her for leaving. Maybe it was because now I knew why she'd done it, or maybe I was feeling guilty for being the one who had pushed her away.

Iggy drew a sharp intake of breath and clenched his fists as Fang began reading.

_I don't belong, that's easy enough to see. Maybe I'm stupid but seeing Max like that...She GIGGLED! Max never GIGGLED, or at least not when she was around the Flock. I wonder... I wonder if Max and Ella stay up and giggle about Fang and Iggy. I wonder if Max tells her things about her and Fang that she'd never tell me. I wonder if Ella's my replacement._

Even coming out of Fang's even mouth, Nudge's words stung. She thought Ella was her REPLACEMENT? Oh, Nudge. Maybe I had been neglecting her, but I wasn't replacing her. Maybe now that my dream of a normal family that loved me had come true and I'd lost Nudge in the background. With a pang I realized what Nudge had written was true. I _had_ gone to Ella. Or rather, she'd gone to me. She'd stopped me one night from going to bed and asked to talk on the porch swing in the backyard. I agreed.

"So Max..." she'd said with an evil grin, "Tell me all about Fang." And I had. For some reason I opened up and told her everything. And what had I done to Nudge? Shh-ed her an said nothing was going on.

"Enough," It wasn't me who'd said it but I'd thought it. Instead there was Jeb, holding his hand up to silence Fang. "This... reminiscence will not help us find Nudge. We still don't know our strategy, we still don't know how we'll infiltrate Itex. There is a lot more going on than her _feelings_--" I could tell Jeb was getting impatient. I could also tell that his interest in finding Nudge seemed little. He seemed VERY fond of me going back in the School, although that was the part I was mostly dreading. But didn't Jeb care? Didn't he realize how important this was?

"Don't you think," Ella chose her words carefully, "Nudge was being a LITTLE overdramatic about this?"

Iggy's head snapped in the direction he thought her voice came from. He was a little off, but that didn't take from the fact that everyone knew his sour words were meant for her.

"Shut-up." he said forcefully. "These are Nudge's feelings. They _matter_. Maybe you don't understand them, but that's YOUR problem. Don't reprimand her for how _she_ feels."

Iggy stood up, his chair falling down. Fang, right next to him, had the book snatched from his hands by the strawberry blonde bird kid. Iggy held the diary close to him and exited the kitchen. He ran through the living room, tore past the sliding door and headed for the woods.

Fang shot me one book and, almost in unison, we went after him and the diary.

**Iggy POV**

I'll tell you a secret. I _can_ see. Not with my eyes but with this unknown sense I've never told anyone about. It's kind of like touch and it's kind of like sight and it involves hearing...

As I ran out of the kitchen and through the back door I relied onthis sense to carry me through the woods of the Martinez's backyard. Because I wanted to be far, far away from this place.

I used the snap of a twig to help me. The soundwaves that came from the twig bounced off it and helped me "see" my surroundings. Wherever the sound waves bounced off or formed around I could make out figures. It was a hazy and fuzzy picture but it was how I got by.

With a swift swipe of my arm, I picked up a twig and started snapping it whenever the picture began fading away. Soon the twig was useless but that didn't matter as I had reached my destination. The porch swing.

With the twig useless and the only sound the faint rustling of my feet in the fallen leaves, I used my hands to guide me to the swing. I reached it and sat down. that's when I noticed I still had Nudge's diary tucked under my arm.

I flared up. what use was it to me? Why had I taken it, it wasn't like Nudge wrote in braille. I thought of flinging the diary across the wood in my anger but decided against it. It was our only link to her.

I ran my hand through my hair and laid myself out on the swing. I turned so that my face was facing the back support. I made it so that no one could see myself. Then I cried.

I wanted the porch to stop creaking. Partly because it would give me away, but Max and Fang had already found me. And partly because I didn't want to "see" the two figures who had witness my all-out-bawl. Placing a hand over my eyes wouldn't help. Placing both hands over my ears would either. I had to deal with them.

"Scoot over," Max said.

I picked myself up from my fetal position and instead scooted to the far corner of the swing. I curled myself, knees to my chest, arms squeezing my legs in tightly. I vowed I wouldn't talk to them. I didn't want to talk. I didn't _want_ to, so why did I find myself babbling incessantly.

"I know how she feels," I said.

Oh great, I was crying again.

**Ella POV**

Ella was mad. Just because she didn't have wings like the rest of them! How many times had Max told her a joke and then stopped to say: "No, you wouldn't get it," Just because she wasn't a bird freak like them... No. Ella wouldn't go there. Just because she was mad at Iggy for flinging his feelings at her and then changing his mind at the last second, didn't mean she would hurt Max. And Angel. She was the cutest thing! When she grew up, Ella thought, she could be a model. _If_  
she grew up. Ella sighed. She picked up her favorite plush toy (yes she was thirteen, but she was feeling down and Bun-Bun _always_ made her feel better) and went to sit in her reading nook and look out of the big window. Her window overlooked the woods. She knew that's where Iggy had run, and Max and Fang soon after. She also knew that if she tried to run after him she wouldn't be welcomen.

Since the moment Maximum Ride had stepped into Ella's life she'd grown. In confidence rather than looks, but it had still made girls who'd never looked twice at her ask her if she'd done something with her hair. Well, she had. She'd gotten highlights to try and match Max's brown-blond locks. It hadn't worked as the looked completely different, but everyone still complimented her.

Max was the epitome of cool. And when ella found out Max was her actual _sister_ a happiness had rushed through her. Max would show Ella how to be cool. Then she'd stop being the loser nobody liked. Max, Ella was sure, would be the best big sister in the world.

but then Max broke the news. She wasn't going to be staying. She was going out there _again_, with her flock. Ella thought it wasn't fair. Now that Max had a real family shouldn't she stay with them? But Max laughed slightly and said no, that the Flock was all the real family she ever needed.

Didn't Max know what a slap in the face that had been to Ella? She wanted to get up and yell, maybe scream a few words about how Max had hurt her. But that would be over dramatic. That would be like Nudge.

And the though of Nudge's Take Off Ella grew angry. Nudge obviously didn't know how good she had it. She had IGGY as a big brother (and maybe more, Ella thought growing even madder) and Max as a big sister! She could play with Angel's beautiful blonde hair for as long as she pleased. She could bounce jokes off of the Gasman whenever. Nudge had the perfect life. Ella concluded that Nudge was the stupidest of all birdkids to leave it.

**Iggy POV**

Max didn't interrupt or say anything "encouraging". Fang didn't call me a wuss or say I was stupid. They just let me blubber for who knows how long. They let me talk about how useless I'd felt being the blind kid. Not being able to see in normal people's sense of the word had set me back a few years so that I was around the same age as Gazzy. Or at least that was how Max and Fang saw me. I knew it. They knew it too. But we'd had that talk a few days ago. I'd told them that I no longer wished to be treated like an 8 year old. That I wanted to be treated like I was 15, the same age as them. I explained that I was sick of being treated as though I were a handicap because I was blind. Maybe in the real world I'd get the special parking, but I knew out here it was different, I was better than that and I deserved to be treated as such.

Max had nodded, said I was right and she was sorry for being so blind. Ha ha. Fang said it was about time I'd stood up for myself. They'd left me feeling foolish like I always did after I'd confessed my feelings in the form of a speech. The way they treated it, it was like all I'd had to do was say something and they would've included me.

I wondered what would happen if Nudge had just said something. Would she still have left? I bet Max would've listened to her. I would've. She shouldn't have shut herself away. She shouldn't have left.

After I was finished crying about how I felt, I cried for Nudge. I cried for the pain she must've been feeling in that house all the days she was there. I cried because I hadn't remembered her birthday, and that maybe if I'd just yelled "Happy Birthday" that night, all of this could've been avoided.

No. I was talking as though this was over. And this was far from over.

Quickly I unraveled myself from the crying ball I'd been in. I snapped a twig under my feet, saw where Max and Fang were and faced them.

"We're going to forget about the last 20 minutes," I said seriously, "We are going to go in the house and say I was on a nature hike or something."

"A nature hike?" Max cried incredulously. "Like heck we are. I'm not going to forget this Iggy! We're going to talk this out and cross examine every bad feeling you've ever had. I'm not letting you feel like crap. If you run away-- God I'll just have to kill you!"

I snapped another twig and found her hand. I could tell Max was feeling helpless and guilty and me crying hadn't helped matters. If anything it had worsened them and now, she felt like killing someone.

"Max, I swear I won't run away. how could I? I'm blind. I'd probably fly into a rain cloud and that would be the end of Iggy: The Blind Bird-Kid." Max hiccup-laughed at my lame attempt at humor. Feeling glad I'd made Max feel a little better (but then I had just made her feel a lot worse) I stood up.

"Seriously, if you could just forget this. It's kind of a bruise to my pride. And no telling Nudge when we find her either."

"Consider it done," Fang said.

Sometimes I think Fang knows way too much to be fifteen.

**Nudge POV**

My tummy was happy and therefore I was happy. Mini-Nudge was a little bit frustrated, but once I locked her in the cage in the back of my mind she bothered me no more.

So far no one had looked at me oddly. (except for that one dude with the tattoo, but I was acting strangely so he doesn't count). This town was so out of there with only one fast food restaurant, small, family owned businesses and actual sidewalks. I wished that my mom lived here. I think it would be awesome to live in a place like this. It seemed warm and cozy.

I walked past a park on my way to food. On my way out of McDonalds, searching for a place to take off from, I ran across this same park. A vision of me and my mom sitting on one of those benches, eating an icecream cone, chatting about _stuff_ ran through my head. She'd laugh at my small problems, ruffle my hair, and tell me everything was going to be all right. She would be one of those mothers, I decided. She would be the kind who'd listen to your problems faithfully and then, when you were done, tell you that everything was going to be all right. And you'd believe her.

Maybe I'd beg my mom to let us visit this town when I'd found her. This was exactly the type of place I pictured myself living if Itex hadn't swooped in and given me wings.

I don't know how long I stood there looking at that one park bench. Who knows why I was so transfixed with it? Why didn't I just go over there and sit on the bench? I shook my head. No. If I sat down on the bench the magic would be destroyed. It wouldn't be me and my mother's bench anymore. Sitting on the bench without her would just further remind me of what I didn't have.

I stood up and turned away from the bench. I stretched and yawned. As much as I didn't want to leave the spell of the bench, I had to go, right?

Just as my eyes were closed (because it's impossible to yawn and open your eyes at the same time) I heard a footstep behind me.

I turned, and saw someone grab my bag from the ground.

"Hey!" I yelled out, but that didn't stop the theif from running away, my bag in his hand.

"Hey!" I yelled again. It took me a while to get up the idea to run after him and I did. I kept him in my sight which caused me to bump into one too many pedestrians. The last one I pummeled into took my by the hand and began lecturing me about kids these days and their disregard for manners. I glared at her venomously and wanted so badly to do a roundhouse in her nagging face.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "Yeah, okay 'please and thank you' are important but not when someone's trying to steal your stuff!" I yelled.

She looked a bit embarassed, but she let me go. I think she was about to apologize, but I didn't hang around for that. I whipped my head around to see where the theif had gone, but that's just it, he'd left. There was no one running guiltily around with my bag in tow. This lady had cost me my bag! Now I had no idea where I was going! I had no food. I had nothing to drink. All the pictures of my Flock that kept me sane, they were gone. Everything that kept me rooted to my past life... _gone_.

I knew it was a contradiction, me holding onto the things that still kept me connected. If I was trying to run away from them, why did I hold their things so closely? Before leaving I had sneaked the so few pictures of us, all Polaroids. None of them showed us with or wings, for caution's sake, but in each one we wore a smile. The group picture was the one I'd looked at the most. It had us all engulfed in a group hug, a few months before the Itex thing.

But now it was gone. Now it and all the other things in that bag that tied me to the Flock was gone. The only thing identifying me with them now were my wings. It should've felt liberating. It didn't. I just felt like I wanted to crawl into the nearest dark alley and cry.

But you can't do that, Nudge. I told myself. You've already wasted hours eating and staring at a _bench_. You've got to stop wasting time and start getting productive.

What I needed now was a map.

**Author's Note: Not exactly a cliffhanger, is it? But I didn't want to leave you with one. I actually don't like this chapter very much, but I wanted to hurry up and post it. It's kind of a filler one as all of the action happens in the next few chapters. Plus you got to see some of Ella! (That's probably the only time that'll happen) but I realized I was a bit mean to her in the last chapter, and that Iggy yelled at her alot. Until next time, Later Days! (the Weekenders are AWESOME)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Well, here it is. Expect the next chapter to be the last one, a heartfelt reunion between the Flock and Nudge. I've got this confrontation with Ella and Iggy where Ella makes Iggy realize that ::gasp:: he is in love with Nudge, but I'm not sure that I'll put it in. I love fluff as much as the next reader, but does it really match with the story? I can't have Nudge be so depressed in the begining and then spin it so that she and Iggy live happily ever after... or can I? I _do_ have the power. Anyway, still debating about that. The next chapter should be coming up on Friday or Saturday depending on how much homework I've got.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the characters on Maximum Ride. I do own Merv. Don't you dare take Merv away from me.**

**Taking Off: a Nudge Story**

Chapter 6

**Nudge POV**

So much for my plan on being productive. "Being productive", I was sure, did not include asking several people where the nearest map store was and then getting lost when trying to follow their directions. I asked, on coincidence, one lady twice and she started getting huffy. As though it were my fault that her handwriting was as decipherable as the hieroglyphics on Tut's tomb. By the time I actually found the store it was closed. It was eleven o'clock at night, it was dark, and the guy a couple yards away looked shifty. As much as I wanted to be productive and high tail it to Virginia, I was lost without a map to tell me where I was going.

The wind blew my way and automatically I wrapped myself tighter in my jacket. Where could I sleep? No hotels were nearby, not even an inn. I shuddered to think I would have to sleep on the dirty ground. As if reading my mind the shifty guy yards away threw down his McDonald's trash. The wind was quick to blow it away, but still thinking of all the things that would still be lying on the sidewalks didn't make it number one on my list of where I wanted to sleep.

I was still looking around, up the road and down the road, hoping that a hotel would materialize on the street in front of me when I heard a tap on a window.

I didn't turn around, because there would be no way that tap was to get my attention, until the window tapped again.

This time I did turn around and look to who could be making that noise. It was an old man. He wasn't smiling, but his face wasn't turned up in a frown either. Although wrinkles crowded his face he still looked like he was in touch with his youth.

He tapped again as if saying, Yes, that was me tapping, and Yes, I am speaking to you.

Then, from out of the shadows of the rest of his store, he pulled out a sign.

"Room For Rent. One Dollar A Night,"

My face broke out into a smile, I couldn't help it, and I rushed towards the door. I didn't think about whether or not this man could be Itex, because I wasn't Max or Fang. My first instinct wasn't to analyze the person left and right. It was to trust people wholeheartedly. And maybe that's what had gotten me into this mess, but I wasn't about to turn down a practically free room. Besides, when the man saw I was coming to the door he'd smiled. Anyone who could smile like that, and who could offer a one dollar room to a runaway couldn't be Itex.

I threw open the door, let the warm heat hit me, and introduced myself. "I'm Nudge. Thank you."

**Max POV**

When we walked back into the kitchen Ella was gone. Dr. Martinez was facing one wall, deep and thought and Jeb was typing furiously on his laptop. Maybe trying to recover the lost files? His fist slammed into the table, shaking the glasses of water. He'd failed. Looked like we'd still have to take a trip to the School. And how, exactly, were we to do that?

Fang, Iggy and I took our seats only this time we were next to each other. Fang was to the left of me and Iggy to the right. All three of us had let our wings free and now they were touching. Close enough to be considered holding hands, only this ran deeper than that. This was something only six of us could do. Besides, it let Iggy and Fang save face. Neither of them would do something as pansy as hold my hand although I knew they both wanted to.

Jeb swore. "She's good," he muttered. He closed his laptop, wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to us. "Are we better now?" he said with a hint of impatience.

Iggy turned red and mumbled a soft, "Yea,"

"Good. Now can we please get on with how you're going to infiltrate the School? It's what the meeting was called for, and we have yet to touch on the subject."

I didn't like the way he was talking. As though getting inside the School was the only thing that mattered. Much more was going on than this. Going inside the School was just a side note, the biggest issue was how my flock felt, but Jeb had just tossed their feelings aside. I needed to make sure he knew where my priorities were.

"We're just going for the files." I said. It wasn't a question and there was no room for argument, but Jeb argued anyway.

"Now Max, one of these days you're going to have to go back into the school and dismantle the systems. Why put it off any longer?" Jeb said this as if it actually made sense.

"Because my Flock is more important than saving the world." I said evenly.

And it was true. I'd realized that before, if Nudge had piped up with idea of finding her parents I would have vetoed it right away. I would have pushed for the 'Save The World' plan. Saving the stupid world had gotten my Flock ripped in two. Saving the world had gotten my priorities mixed up to the point where my sister ran off, thinking I loved the world more than her. I didn't, not anymore at least. My priorities were set in stone and never would I put the world before my siblings-by-wings again.

Jeb didn't say one more word about another agenda while in the School. I'm sure he wanted to use our trip to do a bunch of things, and I'll admit I wanted to trounce them too. But after Nudge came back. Once Nudge was apart of our team again I'd be ready for anything.

Now we bounced ideas on how to get in and out with Nudge's information.

Iggy voted for blowing the place up. "How's that for dismantling the system, Jeb?" Iggy said with a little malice. I guess he was a little sore about Jeb's comment on his breakdown.

Both me and Fang shook our heads. "Do we really want to set fire to the stuff we're trying to get.?" Fang noted.

"How about just busting in there and kicking whitecoat hide?" I suggested.

Fang denounced my plan too. "As soon as they saw us, they'd fire the tazer guns. We're no longer valuable to them, they'll kill us in a heartbeat,"

"Yeah?" Iggy asked getting annoyed. "Well do you have a plan?"

"Actually..." a smile snuck on Fang's face, "I do. We'll need Angel and Ella though."

When Fang said 'Ella' he looked pointedly at Iggy. Iggy's face showed one of conflicted emotions. On the one hand he HAD been a jerk to Ella and we all knew it. Yelling at her, even if she was being a bit slow, hadn't been a smooth move. On the other hand he didn't want to apologize. I could see that he was still miffed at her.

"What do you need her for?" Dr. Martinez asked shooting me a worried glance.

I wanted to reassure her that no harm would come to Ella, but I couldn't because I didn't know the plan. Not wanting my newfound sister to get hurt I turned to Fang. "She won't get harmed, will she?" I asked.

Fang considered it, but then shook his head. "The nearest School is disguised as an asylum--" all of the birdkids in the room grimaced at that. An asylum, perfect. If ever anyone heard the screams of pain, they'd just mark it down as the crazies. Well they were mad scientists. Ha ha, okay not funny-- "of course no patients are ever admitted. Not many crazy people in this city, are there?" Fang looked to Dr. Martinez who shook her head. "Exactly. So do you think they could handle it if someone with a mental illness that caused her to thrash about randomly wanted to be enrolled?" Again Dr. Martinez shook her head. "If Ella could cause enough commotion, and Angel could control the mind of the receptionist long enough for me to slip to her computer and get the information, then no, Ella shouldn't be harmed."

We all thought this plan over. It WAS the one that made the most sense. Blowing things up and busting in unannounced seemed a bit frivolous. But even though this plan was more thought out, there were a hundred different things that could go wrong.

I shot Fang a look. I hoped my look displayed what I wanted to tell him out loud. "There are so many ways to mess this up," I think Fang got the message behind my look, because he sent me one back. Pointing his dark eyes to mine seemed to say, "I know. But if no one else has a plan, then we have to try. We're running out of time."

Time had been going fast, that was true. It had been three days since Nudge's disappearance. I couldn't help think that it only took two seconds for an Eraser's claws to cut through her neck...

I had to trust in Fang's plan. If this didn't work then we'd bust in and kick some whitecoat hide. I would stop at nothing to get that information so I could find Nudge. It felt like the next second would be the second she'd die. I was jumpy because I wanted to raid Itex now. So when Dr. Martinez said, "Tomorrow," I let out an exasperated sigh. I wasn't the only one, except Iggy's was more like a groan.

Dr. Martinez flashed us both mother-type looks. "You need your rest. I know you want to find her, but what use are you if you fall asleep during the middle of a fight?"

I sighed and looked at the clock. Eleven thirty. I wondered what Nudge was doing, right then. I wondered if Nudge was even alive, but then told myself to shut-up. Of course she was. That's why we were going to the School to get her information. If she were dead then that trip would be pointless. But we were going, so she had to be alive.

Did my logic make sense? Of course not. But it lowered my heart beat to a safer rate, and it let me sleep that night. Just barely.

**Nudge POV**

"So, what's a girl like you doing out at eleven-thirty at night?" Merv said pouring me some hot-chocolate.

I brought my mug close to me and inhaled the sense. then I shuddered at the happiness the aroma brought to me.

When I first walked into the shop, said "I'm Nudge" I mentally kicked myself. Never Talk To Strangers, was a rule that was doubly true for on-the-run bird kids. I'd already broken that rule when I'd entered the shop, and I'd forgiven myself for that when I saw the honesty in his smile, but why break rule number two? Never Tell Strangers Your Real Name. Especially not names like "Nudge" "Iggy" "the Gasman" or "Fang" that were so uncommon it wasn't likely strangers would forget them anytime soon. It was too late, and there was no going back. There was no playing it off because nothing would come to my head. Instead I just said, "Thank you."

Merv (whose name I learned later) waved it off and said that it wasn't a problem. Nobody should have to be subjected to the harshness of the January wind and sleeping on the grimy city streets. Least of all a kid.

I tried not to be too mad that he said I was a "kid" because it got me a bed on his couch and a mug of hot cocoa.

Merv had given me a blanket which I was now wrapped up in. I sat on the couch and blew on my hot chocolate to cool it down. While I was blowing Merv had taken a seat next to me.

"You're not a runaway are you?" he asked warily.

I didn't know how to answer that question. I mean technically speaking I was running away from something. But I was also running to something. I remembered my mom's address in my head and smiled. Then I realized Merv was still waiting for my answer so I quickly thought something up. "No. I have a destination," I said. I decided the hot chocolate was safe (and the smell was getting too good to resist taking a sip) and put my lips to the cup. When I had my fill for the time being I continued. "I'm going to see my mom in Virginia."

What the heck possessed me to say that?

I blame the chocolate. If it wasn't so freaking good (Merv had used milk, bless him) then I wouldn't have spilled everything. The heat of the map shop had made me admit my name, the aroma the taste and the heat of the chocolate had made me admit where I was going.

"Oh?" Merv asked inquiring to hear more.

I thought to myself. I could keep it simple. I could not say anything. In fact I shouldn't say anything. Max is always going on about keeping a low profile, not fraternizing with anyone who might could give away where we were. Merv was definitely someone who could give me away. But... I don't know. He wasn't a whitecoat. I highly doubt that he was all part of an Itex plan, that they were so devious as to make sure a Flock member were on her own, not having eaten a good meal in three days, cold, lonely, and sick of hearing her own voice, then invite her into a place with heat, hot chocolate and willing listener. The odds of them finding Merv and interrogating him on my whereabouts were slim. Which is why I found myself telling him everything.

"Yeah." I took another sip of hot chocolate before I divulged my fantasies about meeting my mom, "We'll have a picnic in the park. On a bench," I thought of my bench, "and my mom will have brought bread so we can feed the ducks by the lake. Or maybe we'll go to see a concert. The band will ask us to get up on stage with them and dance because my mom is so beautiful." I was making this up. I hadn't a clue what my mom looked like. My imagination supplied me with false scenarios (did bands pick people from crowds to dance with them?) and a false image of who I wanted my mother to be. But I didn't care, one look at Merv told me he was eating it up, and it was making me feel better too. Caught up in my fantasy I continued, "Her name's Melissa. She's got long wavy, honey brown hair, like mine only less frizzy. She has a smile that lights up the world, and always makes me feel better. Mom works for a big company where she's a successful business woman. She makes millions, no BILLIONS for her company very year. They always tell her that they couldn't do anything without her. Her bosses are always exclaiming of how proud of her they are, how much they love her. If my mom ever left that company they'd be in shambles." I finished, a little sad, but I smiled at Merv. "My mom is the greatest,"

The old man laughed. "She sounds too good to be true,"

My smile faltered a little, but I quickly plastered a fake one on so Merv wouldn't notice. She WAS too good to be true. She wasn't even real. I took another gulp of hot chocolate and let the warmth wash away my worries.

"So if you're going to see your Ma, then why were you shaking out there? And where's your luggage?"

I scanned Merv's face. His tone wasn't accusatory. He believed me, he was just wondering. I hastened to make up a story that didn't sound completely fake in his ears and mine.

"At first I was on a bus. I went past a million stops before getting off at the station where I took a taxi, only I realized I didn't have enough money to pay all the way. The driver noticed so he dumped me here. So yea, I'm lost. And then some thief," I frown as I remember the memory, "takes off with my bag! Luckily he didn't get the money I had left or I would've been in trouble."

Merv looked passive. My first thought was that my story wasn't believable. He saw right through my tricks and was going to report me to the police as a runaway. But the Merv stood up and went towards his kitchen. When he came back into his living room he was holding... my bag!

My face lit up. I almost flung my hot chocolate mug to the wall, but I made myself keep steady and set the mug down on the table next to me. When Merv saw my reaction to the bag he smiled too. when my hands felt the soft fabric I almost squealed with delight. Actually, I think I did. Merv wore a smug little smile, happy that he'd caused me happiness.

I tore the bag open and rummaged around until I found the thing I was looking for. My picture. Tears ran down my face, ones of happiness. The first time in a long time I'd cried tears of happiness. My Flock...

My fingers traced over my family. It didn't matter that it was them I was running away from. I put out how I felt about them, cause right then all I could feel was an extreme love towards each of them.

Angel. the Gasman. Iggy. Fang. Max. God I love you guys.

"Well, that's one problem solved, right?"

I nodded and could barely contain my gratefulness to Merv. "Thank you!" my voice was high pitched but I wasn't embarrassed.

"Now onto your next problem," Merv said. "this, getting to Virginia business. What would you say if I offered to drive you?"

I stopped with the happiness spasm, but I never let the smile break from my face. What would I say? I would say no, that it was way to dangerous. I would say that I could probably go faster with my wings. But was I really in a hurry, now? And Merv had proven that he was my friend. He'd given my Flock back to me. He'd given my chocolate ad a place to stay. What could I say to that?

"I would say that you are the kindest man I've ever met." I said, "I would say that you are personally given the Nudge's Awesomeness Award. I would say... when do we leave?"

**Fang POV**

This wasn't going to work. At first I'd ben confident that this WAS going to work, at the very east it was the only plan we had worth considering. Even though Max had shown disapproval from the start I'd reassured her that we would be safe, that this would be easy and that we'd be out of there quick. Now, standing in front of the building, I wasn't so sure.

Angel gripped my hand and passed me a mental note of reassurance. It should have hurt my manly pride receiving comfort from a 7 yr. old, but it actually did make me feel better. I looked over at Ella hoping she would to me. This all depended on her. If she wasn't convincing enough we'd be dead. Ella didn't meet my eyes. She didn't look at either of us. I think, even though Iggy had offered his shallow apology for the sake of the plan, Ella was still sore. Now wasn't the time to play Dr. Phil, I thought clearing the thoughts of Iggy and Ella's problems from my head. I pushed the door and set the plan into action.

Ella began thrashing about. I held onto her, letting go of Angel's hand and instead putting all my energy in my role. I wondered what was going on her head as she pretended to be a deranged mental patient. I wondered what she was thinking as her motivation to maker her act this was. I would've kept on wondering except for Ella broke free.

Angel strolled up to the counter and said in a sweet voice, "Hi. My sister is crazy. We'd like to request a room for her, please."

I held my breath. Ella's role was to act like a dangerous out-of-control psycho. We had encouraged her to destroy as much stuff as possible. Angel was to butter up the receptionist and use her mutant-powers to persuade her to leave her desk and tend to Ella. My job was to sneak onto her computer, get Nudge's Mom's address and get out of there. From the panicked look on the receptionist's face told me I had little more than five minutes.

As the woman left her desk to attend to Ella I inched over to the deck. I tried to hide my face by squatting low and only having my typing hands above the surface of the desk. It sucked that I wasn't as computer savvy as Nudge, but was the second best in the flock so I set to work.

It shouldn't be this easy, I thought. Itex-Rejects should be swarming in. And about 5 seconds after I thought that, they did.

They looked as model-esque as the Erasers used to. Only they had more striking features, features that screamed out, "Hey, look at me I'm genetically mutated!" First there was their tail. Something about it transfixed me. The tails swayed back and forth in a rhythmic motion that struck me dumb. Then there was their hair. On their head n was more like fur. Short for the girls, long and wavy for the men. Once I stopped being mesmerized by their hypnotic tails I figured out they were there for US.

My eyes flew to the computer screen. I was on Nudge's information page. I scrolled and scrolled until I reached her mom's name and information. I fumbled to find a sticky note or a pen or something, but the lion-like models reached me first. She grabbed my hand and squeezed attempting to crush it in her vicious grip.

"What are you doing, boy?" A purr escaped from the back of her throat.

I glared at her, not showing the pain of her crushing every bone in my hand. Pain is just a message, I deleted it and kicked her in the stomach. She growled and pounced at me. I thought of Angel and Ella and prayed they got out quickly. I knew once Iggy and Max heard from Angel they'd come rushing in here and I hoped they were okay too. But then I stopped thinking about the Flock and I focused on the lioness who was about to kill me.

**Max POV**

Angel ran out tugging Ella's hand with her. I looked for Fang but we wasn't there. Lion Erasers, Angel thought to me.

"Iggy," I snapped to Max in Battle Mode, "Get Ella and Angel out of here, I'll go in for Fang."

Iggy started to protest but then saw the urgency in my eyes and thought better of it. He swooped from the tree we had been perched in on guard. We had been waiting for a signal that said the plan hadn't gone well. We'd been hoping it WOULD have gone well, but it hadn't and this was our role in the plan.

I flew after him, but instead of stopping to pick up passengers I ran into the building, where a massacre was going on.

**Iggy POV**

I couldn't leave. Max hadn't known what she was getting into. I hadn't known much either, but I heard. I heard the fierce growls and the thundering roars. I heard the breaking of bones. Don't let those be Fang's, I thought.

Yes, my job was to get Ella and Angel out safely, but couldn't I just check on the battle?

"You two go." I said forcefully.

"No way!" Angel rebelled, "you're going back to fight, aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, but you are going to take Ella back to the Martinez's house."

Angel took on a tone that made me think she was sticking her tongue out at me. "I don't see why you get to fight when Max told you to go back too. I'm the only one who doesn't! I mean Gazzy gets to drop a bomb on the place--"

I rushed to shush her. But then Ella spoke up with a curious tone. "Uh... was that part of the plan?"

"Just a little precautionary measure," I reassured.

I heard a bloodcurdling scream that, thankfully, didn't sound like Fang or Max. "Now GO," I ordered.

They went. I smiled to myself. No, Max didn't know about about the bomb me and Gazzy had set up, but when it saved our pants in the long run I'm sure she'd forgive me.

I rushed in to join the battle.

**Max POV**

When I saw Fang, I felt relieved. When I saw Iggy I nearly exploded.

"Where's Angel? And Ella?" I yelled trying to dodge some feline's kick.

"Back at Ella's house." I guess he could tell I didn't approve because he quickly said, "I wanted to help. And you know you need it,"

That was true. we were outnumbered terribly. How did Itex manage to produce so many hybrids? It seemed that every time I knocked down one, three more quickly took its place. I'd taken down who knows how many, but I was getting ready to fall from exhaustion. And Fang put up a nice front, but his moves were getting slower and he seemed to be blocking punches rather than throwing his own. I was thankful for Iggy's help, but that looked like it wouldn't be enough.

They were different from the Erasers. There moves were so smooth and silent that it wasn't until their foot impacted your skull that you knew they were even aiming for you. It took you another three seconds to realize that it was a Feline-Eraser that had hit you. We were too slow for them, and they were pummeling us. It would take a miracle to save us. Yes we had Nudge's information, but what use was it if we were battered beyond belief or dead?

Then I heard something. The Gasman. My first thought was what the heck was he doing there? My second thought was this was my miracle. Gazzy sounded like an angel with the next thing he said. "Bombs away!"

Some Feline-Erasers looked up and had the smarts to be nervous. Others just continued to fight. They should've run. We ran. Me, Fang and Iggy all knew what this meant and we ran like madmen out of the lobby of the mental hospital. We kicked Feline-Erasers out of our way. We no longer had a desire to kill them, we just wanted to get the heck out of there.

We made it past the doors of the lobby when the big BOOM sounded signaling the arrival of Gazzy's bomb.

We took off. Not having a running start I was a little bit wobbly but I knew to ignore that and fly like mad away from the asylum.

I watched as the place went up in flames. Feline-Erasers were too distracted by the smoke and the fire to notice that their prey had gone missing. Which, I think, was the whole point.

I saw a mussy haired blonde bird kid rise from the smoke. His face was smudged a little but happiness radiated from it. Maybe it should have bugged me that Gazzy took so much pleasure out of blowing things up. But I wasn't.

I quickly engulfed him in a bear hug. "Thanks Gazzy, you saved our hides!"

When I let go of him he slapped Fang and Iggy high-fives. Then he flashed me that eternally-cute 9 yr. old smile. "So, did you get it?"

Fang slipped his hand into his pocket and when it came out it was holding a yellow sticky note folded up. Unfolding it we could see Nudge's address.

I did a loop in the air. Nudge, here we come.

**Author's Note: Whoo! Go Max! Go Iggy! Go Flock! Next chapter: Nudge drives with Merv, gets into a fight, almost dies (but doesn't because then the story would be over) and sees her long lost momma. ::tear:: bye!**

**lys phillips**


	7. Chapter 7

**Taking Off: a Nudge Story**

Chapter 7

**Nudge POV**

Here was my plan: sneak up really early, leave Merv the kind gentleman a note, and then get the heck out of there. The problem is that Merv pulled a fast one on me. Before thoughts of waking up even crossed my subconscious mind Merv was shaking me awake.

"Rise and shine!"

Me: _groan._

I picked myself up. As nice as Merv was, his couch was not built for sleeping on. Long sits, stay-up-all-night talks sure, but sleeping? No.

Reluctantly I opened my two eyes to see Merv staring back at me. The lamp was on but that was the only light. Nothing was coming out the windows except for the light of the lampposts outside. I looked at the digital clock in the corner.

"5:30?" I asked, my voice gravely with me not having used it in 6 hrs.

Merv nodded as if 5:30 was the greatest invention since peanut butter. "It's a 4 hr. drive to where you want to go in Virginia, I checked online. You wouldn't want to waste any quality time you could be spending with your mom, would you?"

When he put it that way...

I took a shower and dressed in new clothes. Suddenly I was nervous. I looked at myself in the mirror of Merv's bathroom.

Did I look like the daughter of the mother of my dreams?

My eyes scanned my reflection. I started at the top with my frizzy hair. It didn't cooperate with humidity and it didn't cooperate with the wind either. My eyes were a boring brown, nothing special about them. My cheekbones weren't especially model-like neither were my nose or my lips. My figure... what figure? Did I look like the daughter of a woman whose smile lit up the world? Did I look like the daughter of a woman whose company relied on her smarts and her wit? Well, no. But the thing about my mother was that she wouldn't care. I know she wouldn't.

I twirled a lock of my hair in the mirror but I wasn't looking at me. I was thinking about what would happen when I'd see my mom for the first time. And when she'd see me for the first time...

"Nudge? Are you ready?" Merv called.

The engine of the car had started, the noise ringing louder than it usually would it contrast to the silence of the night.

"Yea!" I called out.

I packed up everything in my bag. My brush, my pen, my new notebook, and finally my picture. I lingered a bit longer on the picture. there wasn't a moment that went by that I didn't think about my Flock and what they were doing. Though I knew it would be easier for me to just forget about them and focus on my new goal, I couldn't. Maybe someday I'd visit them. Me and Mom. Maybe then, since I found somebody who loved me, I'd be on better terms with them. Maybe we wouldn't ever be family again, but we could still be friends, right?

"Nudge!" Merv, I knew, was getting impatient. I slipped the picture in my bag, hunched it over my shoulders and exited the shop.

The morning air hit me. It was a little lighter than it had been when I'd first woken up. Now the sun was beginning to rise over the small houses and stores that made up this town. I thought it was a little symbolic. A new day, and all that, right? A new life for Nudge. Maybe I'd even change my name. I walked to the car supposing new names for myself. Merv pointed to the front passenger seat and motioned for me to get in.

"Hey Merv," I said as though we were old buddies, and it really did feel like that too, "How do you feel about the name Elizabeth?"

Merv examined my face for a while, "For you? Nah, I'd keep Nudge. It's unique."

I nodded. Maybe I would keep Nudge. I buckled my seatbelt (Click It or Ticket people) and got ready for a four hour drive. My idea of a four hour drive is a drive in which, three of those four hours, I was asleep. Merv, however, had other ideas. He asked me questions about myself and about my life. Only I didn't answer them as me. I answered as though I were Other-Nudge, the one who had grown up in Fairport, Virginia all her life. then one who had five brothers and sisters, because when he asked me that question that's what I said.

"Five!" Merv raised his eyebrows. "You must never get any time to yourself. I was an only. What are they like, your siblings?"

So I made up five brothers and sisters for myself. Three older and two younger. There was Angela and Geoffrey my younger sister and brother. There was Isaiah, Fred and Mariah, my older two brothers and older sister.

Do their names sound strangely similar to those of the Flock? Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way.

Oh stuff it, they were similar. In fact, when Merv asked me for stories about my siblings and me I brought up stories from the times before Itex. It made me kind of nostalgic for my guys though. Remembering the times I was a part of their fun did make me smile. But then remembering that now I wasn't a part of their fun made me sad again, and my voice became softer. Merv noticed this. He asked me more about my mother. I guess he figured I was happier talking about her than talking about my "siblings". But I didn't want to talk about her. I didn't want made up stories about a made up mother. I wanted real stories, real memories that I could look back on and laugh. I didn't want to remember the Flock with a sad smile.

I went into another funk. Merv prodded me with questions for a while, but then seeing that I didn't want to talk, he just drove on. It was two hours before anything was said. We'd been driving down highways and busy streets. Now we came to a dirt road that seemed to stretch on for ages.

"Just another hour or so on this road, and then we'll be on a state highway." Merv said softly. He was checking to see if I wanted to talk now. "And then just another two hours and we'll be at your mom's."

I was about to answer when the car flipped over.

My head throbbed. I couldn't see anything except for purple blotches of light dancing on my eyelids. I opened my eyes only to meet up with pain. I looked around, not to rapidly so as to avoid getting dizzy. I was sideways. The window next to me was on the floor. The glass had cracked and was now in a pool below me. I struggled to get out of my sideways state. That's when I noticed Merv.

Oh no.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no.

I looked at Merv's empty face. I tried to see some life in his eyes. I grabbed his wrist and searched for a pulse. I felt an intense beating and then realized it was my own rapid heart crying out. Crying because Merv was gone.

I wanted to lay under the flipped car and cry for him. But I knew if I didn't get out of that enclosed space I would end up just like my aged friend, only by suffocation.

The card had flipped on its right side, the glass on the left side had shattered and flown onto my skin.I realized I was already cut by the tiny shards. Because the door was so bent I couldn't open it using the handle. I was too crushed in so kicking the door out wasn't possible. I wad to crawl out of the window.

I tried to avoid the glass that was still locked to the car but looking up at my dangerously sharp. Soon I was on top of the car, a little scratched in my arm from a cut glass I couldn't swerve around.

I looked around for the cause of our accident and Merv's death. I don't know what I expected to see, a rock on the ground, or a tree in the middle of nowhere? What I did not expect to see was a lioness leaping out of thin air and pouncing right in front of me.

She rocked the car, purposefully. Her weight shifted from paw to pa. Eyes of a lioness glared at me. Her teeth showed a combination of a fierce growl and a mocking smile.

She was trying to make me fall. She was taunting me.

The car rocked ferociously now and while she seemed to be at home on the unstable vehicle I was about to tumble off the car... and right onto the puddle of deadly sharp glass.

The lioness seemed to like the fact that I was deathly afraid of her. She seemed to like that she could render me paralyzed and speechless. Only after about five minutes of toying with me on top of the car she was getting impatient with me. Perhaps she was ready to fight and was tired of me being an immovable doll. Her paw came to my side and whacked my entire body off the car. I was almost grateful. She'd whacked me away from the many shards of glass. But she'd also whacked me enough to hurt like hell, and her claws had torn into my skin.

I fell to the ground which didn't hep the throbbing pain I was already receiving. My eyes squeezed tightly until the worst of the impact left me and I was ready to face reality. When I opened my eyes I was seeing double.

Well, not exactly. The lioness had changed into a slim, tall deadly looking woman with short fur instead of hair. She looked at me as though I were a rare kind of food, licking her lips. In her mind she was probably contemplating using a fork on me or just tearing in with her bare hands.

The other one had long, shaggy brown hair. He looked bored as if I weren't worth the trouble. As though he were passing his plate on to the lioness. As though I were already dead.

The lioness nudged me with her foot, checking to see if I was still alive. She cocked her head and purred slightly. "This should be fun," she said to her companion.

And then they proceeded to kill me.

I was a game to her. A game that, no doubt in her mind, she'd win. Her continued batter wasn't because I was resisting well and therefore prolonging the attack. It was because she was TOYING with me. This battle could have ended ages ago with me on the ground, but instead she'd continued it for her own amusement.

Rage stirred and bubbled inside me. You're being weak and pathetic, Nudge. And she and her assistant know it. Not even fighting back as Lioness delivers several blows to her stomach. Just lying passive as Lioness's Assistant uses his foot to cause some painful bruises in her leg. If this was all just a game to them, what would happen when they got bored?

They'll kill me, I thought wincing in pain as Lioness smacked her fist into my head. I fell to the gravel. The friction between me and the ground bruised me somewhere but I was more focused on the throbbing pain in my head. And the realization that they could kill me and I could do nothing about it. I wanted to stay on the ground and let myself lose. Surely that would be less painful?

Only I'd tried that route hadn't I? And what had being passive gotten me? Bruises and scars and this throbbing headache. No. This wasn't a time for Nice-Nudge. I had to get angry.

Hey, it worked for the Hulk didn't it?

Angry-Nudge didn't think straight. To her pain in the head and a few bleeding boo-boos were nothing. Unless my neck was broken I wasn't going down without a fight.

I picked myself up which I know surprised Lioness and her assistant. Her assistant growled, probably because I was still alive and it looked like I was finally going to fight back. Through peripheral vision I could see that Lioness was smiling. Her prey fighting back only made the game better. This made me madder. I was still trying to raise myself up when Lioness ran to my side and attempted to hit me, but before her hand and my gut made contact I took her hand and twisted it as hard as I could and as far as I could get it.

She let out a fierce growl. I didn't have time to dwell on the fact that I had caused pain t hr because almost in unison Lioness and her assistant attacked me again.

He was aiming for a swift kick to my legs to knock me off my balance, and she was aiming for a kick to my face. My wings flew out and I swerved upward, dodging Assistant's's kick and giving Lioness a hard kick to her chin. Her head snapped backwards and a loud crack stopped the fight.

I floated above the scene. Lioness crumbled to the ground he head at an odd angle. Instantly Assistant rushed to her side, gingerly examining his partner. I don't know what was wrong with her, maybe I'd broken her neck. Assistant scooped hr in his arms carefully holding her head. Lioness moaned in pain and I flinched. Assistant detected the movement and looked up to find me looking onto his tender moment. He attacked me with a look so fierce I was almost knocked out of the air. He gave a low growl then turned away from me and pounced off.

As soon as Lioness and her Assistant were out of ear shot (I waited a couple of extra minutes in case of freaky enhanced mutant hearing) I yelled out it triumph, "What?" I asked the empty air, "What now? Ooo, you though I was pathetic. You thought I was weak, poor passive Nudge. But would Nudge in Passive Mode have broken your neck? Noooo!" I did a mini-triumphant dance in the air.

My wings had been cramped between my shoulder blades for the past few days, so I stretched. Flying always made me happier. The sheer freedom of knowing I had the entire sky as a playground did wonders for my mood. I did a loop in the air and let all of my muscles that had been cramped in the 3 hour drive stretch.

Then it it me again. 3 hr. drive. Car. Merv.

Uneasily I turned around around to see the wreckage. The car was still there having been untouched by the fight. I took a deep breath, for I knew who's lifeless body I'd find if I looked into the car. I didn't want to look, but I didn't want to leave him there. He'd seen me a shaking, cold, runaway and invited me in anyway. He'd found my bag for me and my pictures of my Flock. He'd offered me, someone he'd know for all of 30 minutes, a ride to Virginia. And I'd killed him off.

No, I hadn't flipped the car myself. I hadn't willed the air bag to come late, too late. But the Lioness who HAD flipped the car had been after me. And because Merv was with me he was the one who'd suffered. The bruises and the scars that I had compared little to what I'd done to Merv.

I landed and walked over to the car. Even though the thought of seeing Merv like that again repulsed me, I wouldn't leave him in the car. Besides, I still hadn't paid my rent.

Really I owed him so much more than a one dollar rent, but it seemed fitting. Lost in a dream state, I dug Merv a grave. Then, careful to not damage his body any further than it had been, I dragged him out of the car and carried him over to the hole I'd dug. Tears fell on the grave as I saw his mangled body lying in the dirt. By the time I'd put the dirt back in he grave I was sobbing. I'd known him for maybe 12 hours, but I really felt close to him. I spread flowers over the hole and laid done my rent, plus a hefty tip of every dollar I had.

To the man I'd told my deepest most secretive fantasies to. He had, even if he didn't know it, caused me to open up to him more than I'd ever done with the Flock. "Thank you," I whispered.

I stayed there for hours or minutes until all my tears had fallen and I was ready to leave.

I couldn't do anything about the car that was now wrecked beyond repair so I just left it there. I took off in the sky heading for Virginia.

I wanted to make the dreams I so enthusiastically told Merv about true. Or at least I wanted to try. For Merv I'd find my mom. Maybe I DID have 5 brothers and sisters. Maybe I didn't. I'd realized driving in the car that this entire trip had been a gamble. Since I left the Martinez's house the odds were against me. Maybe my mom would be all that I'd dreamed, maybe not. In the car my mind had been reeling. I'd been panicking on the inside, because what if my mom wasn't like I'd imagined? I was scared. But for Merv I'd take this bet. Merv had his life taken away so I could meet my mom, I would risk emotional pain for him.

I went back to the car one last time and tried to ignore the splattered blood. I kept my eyes on the dashboard. I opened it and took out the map. Then I grabbed my bag. I flew into the air and headed in the direction of Fairport Virginia. No stops, for real this time. I ignored my crying stomach and Mini-Nudge's begs for a tiny pit stop, until I saw a sign. "Fairport, Virginia: Population- 12,098".

Mom, here I come.

**Max POV**

We'd been flying almost nonstop. Exhaustion had no meaning to this group of birdkids. We were on a mission, to find Nudge and give her a slap in the face or a great big hug. What to do when we found her depended on who you were talking to. Me for instance, I was confused.

On the one hand, I loved Nudge. And it hurt me so badly that she would think I didn't. Guilt had clouded me the past few days. Was it really all my fault that she had left? Was I really too preoccupied with my new family to notice that a piece of my old one was falling apart? Well, yes. Yes I was. But not anymore and I wanted to make sure that Nudge knew that. This side of me wanted to find Nudge and wrap her into a tight squeeze.

The other side of me wanted to yell at Nudge. This was the mother-type side, as opposed to the other side which was more like the sister or best friend side. this side wanted me to give her a lecture on thinking things through. Her trip could've gotten us killed or found. Was she even thinking about the Flock when she decided to take off? No.

Then again, the Guilty Side fought back, you weren't thinking about her.

And on and on they'd go, fighting and taking up space in my mind. And I'd try to ignore them and focus on the road or the map.

We'd passed the 'Now Entering Fairport, VA' sign long ago. When I'd seen it my heart had given a little tug in every direction. Gazzy told Iggy about it and they both high-fived each other. Fang had flown up by my side and asked me if I thought about what I was going to say to her. He sounded a little bit nervous, as though he hadn't a clue what to say to her either. But he also sounded way to accusatory for my taste so I'd called out to the Flock: "20 more minutes!" They answered with whoops and whollops and Fang had left me alone.

But now, as we neared the neighborhood where Nudge's mom lived, I was getting the jitters again.

We were flying low, but not low enough for anyone to see us. Just low enough for out superpowered bird eyes to spot Nudge if she happened to be around. We were in Fairport, and we were close to where Nudge should be, but we had gone without a glimpse of our missing bird kid for a while until Gazzy yelled out, "NUDGE!!!"

For a second I didn't want to look, what if it was a false alarm? What if it wasn't really Nudge, like the girl I'd spotted near the train station? She'd turned out not to be a real Nudge, just a Doppelganger and I'd felt like crap. You can see why I was being hesitant to turn my eyes to where Gazzy was pointing. But I was glad I did. It really was Nudge. Her frizzie hair wasn't one of an imposter. Even from way up high I could see my sister-by-wings.

"Trees!" I cried out, unable to say anything else because I was choked up with happiness. It would't have mattered what I said, it turns out, because Iggy divebombed straight for Nudge. The Gasman and Angel followed, but Iggy reached her first. He felt around for her. Nudge, surprised and paralyzed by our sudden appearance, didn't move. This suited Iggy just fine. As soon as he got a hold of where she was (thanks to Angel calling out "To your left!") he snatched her into a tight hug.

**Iggy POV**

I wouldn't ever let go. I don't know what got ahold of me. I found myself hoping that this was really Nudge because if this was a stranger it would be really hard to explain why I was hugging her so tightly. But no, it WAS her. I knew the feel of her skin. I took note of everything about her, because what if Nudge left again and I was deprived for even more time? Using every sense but sight on her, so I'll always remember. Smell, I inhaled the soft sent of her hair. Touch, I ran my fingers across her face so I'd never forget how she looked. Taste, uh that's just a bit weird. I didn't taste her. Hearing, because I could hear her sobs as she hugged me back. And not only the dinky five senses known to kindergartners. Thermoception, because my body heat and hers meshed together so that we were both unusually warm in the early January weather. Nociception, the sense of pain. Before it seemed as though every part of me was aching. And now, being so close to her, all the pain seemed to have slipped away...

**Author's Note: Chapter 8 is the last chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Here it is. The last chapter. After this the story is no more. I suppose I AM a little sad, I liked this story. But I've got two new projects I'm working on. Get ready for some Angel Angst::laughs evily::. Hope you enjoy this last chapter.**

**Taking Off: a Nudge Story**

Chapter 8

**Nudge POV**

I had been sitting on the sidewalk across from my "mother's" house when they found me. Hours had passed since I first found that house, but all I'd been able to will myself to do was to sit on the other side of the street and stare at it.

If Itex hadn't taken me, that's where I'd be living. those kinds of thoughts were what ran through my head. I would have swung on that tree in the front yard. I would have learned how to ride a bike in that driveway. I would have grown up in that house, with the red brick and the green shutters. And I would have had that woman for a mother.

I saw her.

About two hours after I had been immobilized on the sidewalk I saw someone open the door and then walk down the steps to the PT Cruiser in the driveway.

Is it possible for someone to look just like me, but completely different at the same time?

I was mesmerized by her from the moment she stepped out of the house. She didn't have honey-brown hair, no. Her hair was a soft black. It wasn't wavy either, or maybe it was and you just couldn't tell by the way she kept it tucked at the nape of her neck. It was the way she held herself that kept me hypnotized. She looked like an important person, like a person with things to do. I'd gotten bored looking at the house and had taken a peek at my mother's file. Before all I'd looked at was the address. Now I looked at the information Itex had gathered in the last couple of years. My mother's name wasn't Melissa, it was Mariah Carson. She did work for a big business, but she was still inching her way to the top. All the same, she held her head high and looked as though she made millions -no billions- for her company each day. I wanted that person to be my mom. She got into her car, and when she drove past me I got a glimpse at her face... a face that looked just like mine.

I resumed my spot on the sidewalk and waited for her to come back. A couple of hours after she left, my Flock came back to me.

They came to me.

When I saw Iggy flying towards me I felt like I was going to barf my heart. I was that happy. When he engulfed me in a hug, I was too happy for words. My tears said it all.

"Don't you ever do that again," he warned once he had let me go. His voice was angry, but his face had crumpled into a sad expression. "Do you know the kind of crap we went through in order to find you? We almost got killed! And God, the tears!"

I was smiling and crying and laughing and sobbing. A wild mix of emotions ran through me, because I was wrong. They did care about me. They did, or they wouldn't have been lining up to hug me.

Actually there was no line. They didn't even wait for Iggy to finish ranting. The Flock kind of just dog-piled on us. But I didn't mind. Even as my hand scraped the street, I didn't care.

I couldn't stop grinning. Even as they all yelled at me.

Max was a little bipolar about it. At first she hugged me, but then she shrieked that if I ever ran away again she'd tear me apart. And then she hugged me again.

The Gasman and Angel did a double tackle on me. I could tell the Gasman was really happy when he exclaimed: "You're not dead!"

There's a word for what I felt. Or if there isn't there definitely should be. It was kind of like joy and happiness and satisfaction and the righting of wrongs put together. Johappisatisrightofwrongification.

Yes, that was what I was feeling. Johappisatisrightofwrongification. And lots of it.

If I had been right then they wouldn't have come. And they wouldn't have gone to Itex just to find me. I was so so glad that I was wrong. Throughout the tearful reunion Max never let me out of her sight and Iggy never let go of my hand. It was as though they were both afraid I was going to run away any moment now and they wanted to catch me before I did. But I wouldn't. I'd seen four days without my Flock and I never wanted to go back to it. And the knowledge that they had seen days without me and didn't want to go back to it either made me grin, even as they were yelling at me. It was when they said that we should probably get out of the middle of the street that I remembered why I was really in Fairport. Fang suggested we get hotel rooms, and I remembered where I'd thought I would be staying. At my mom's.

My eyes flew to her house, and to the empty driveway.

Max followed my gaze. "Have you met your mom yet?"

I shook my head. It shouldn't matter, right? I mean the entire point of finding my mom was to find a replacement family for the Flock. Now that I had the Flock back, I shouldn't need my mom should I?

Iggy squeezed my hand. "You can do that tomorrow," he said a bit forcefully. As though he wouldn't let go of my hand for anything. I decided I liked that, and squeezed his hand back.

"Yeah," Max agreed, "we should check into the hotel. And then you can see your mom..."

I think we both realized what that would mean and the same time. Max gave me a message with her eyes. We need to talk, it said.

I nodded. Nobody else noticed the meaning of those words. Not Iggy, who smiled and grinned. He was no longer sad and no longer angry. Those two emotions had made way for the happiness that now fell on his face.

Iggy grinned and stuck his fist out.

Everyone had already been smiling, but these smiles now broadened. We all stacked our fists on top of his and Max tapped them. Then we hugged each other, everyone joining in. Even Fang came voluntarily. Nobody wanted to miss this moment where our family became whole again.

Do you remember at the begining of this story, when I said I felt like I didn't belong? Do you remember when I said that I didn't have a place in the Flock? I take it back. I take back everything. I finally felt like I belonged, there in the arms of my family. My place in the Flock was between Max and Iggy. That's where I was when we all took off together to fly towards a hotel. That's where I'd always be. Nudge, I decided, would never fly solo again. I was a cruicial piece of the Flock, only it took me a pound or two of heartbreak to realize it.

"We need to talk," Max said.

I was sitting on the bed that me and Angel would share. Max was standing in the doorway blocking any chance for my escape. Not that I wanted to escape. I needed to talk to Max too. Everyone else was downstairs eating at the hotel buffet. Iggy had finally let go of my hand if only to get something to eat. This was the only time we would be alone, and the only time we could talk.

Max sat down on the bed next to me and looked at her lap. I watched her play with her fingers for a few seconds before she turned her head towards me.

"Did... did I hurt you that badly?" Max asked me.

I wanted to say she hadn't, but even though the smiles today had overcome the pain of yesterday, I still remembered myself fresh from running away, crying as I flew.

It was my turn to look at my lap and play with my fingers. I murmured a soft, "Yeah," and we were quiet for a while.

"I'm sorry, then," Max finally said. "I'm sorry for ignoring you Nudge. I don't even know what was wrong with me, except for the fact that I was finally really happy and I hadn't been for forever..." Max scanned my face looking for a reaction, "But that's no excuse. I'm the leader, right? I should have noticed that you weren't yourself. I shouldn't have been so absorbed in myself, to not take time to notice that you were hurting so badly."

"Wrong," I said with a sad smile, "I've been the most selfish brat. I was just jealous of your happiness with Ella and your mom. That's why I couldn't stand that house. I was jealous of everyone else's happiness and couldn't figure out why I wasn't laughing too. But I shouldn't have left. I should've at least attempted to have fun with you all. Only it felt like you were a part of some exclusive club..." I trailed off, not wanting to tell Max how I had felt about the "Blood Club".

After some silence Max stood up and walked to the other side of the room where our bookbags lay. She picked hers up and then sat back down next to me. Max opened her bag and pulled out my diary.

"Forget something?" Max said with a small trace of humor.

My notebook. I took it from her and opened it to the page where I had left. Tearstained, it explained all of my problems with the Martinez house and the Flock. It now seemed like years ago when really it had been a matter of days. It was amazing that I felt completely different now. Now I knew that the Flock cared. But even so as I read the lies I believed, the sadness came pouring back in.

"Did you really think Ella was your replacement?" Max was careful to choose her words. I guess she didn't want to step on a landmine, and I couldn't blame her. My words had been so harsh. Why was I so quick to leave this behind? Why did I want them to find it? To hurt them, I realized. To hurt them as much as they'd hurt me. And it had worked. Max wouldn't have been tiptoeing around her words if it hadn't hurt them.

I wasn't as happy as I'd thought I'd be. In fact I was wholly disgusted with everything I'd done, which was just cause a lot of drama for some petty reasons.

"Yes," I answered truthfully. But my next statement was also true, "I don't anymore. I was so stupid, that I don't want to think about it anymore." To Max's face of disbeleif I insisted. "No, really, can we forget about my stupid runaway attempt?"

Max's eyes narrowed and she grew angry. "Why? Why does everyone want to forget it? I don't want any of my Flock feeling worthless. I don't want them feeling as though they are so unloved that they have to pack up and run away. I don't want us to ever break up for any reason, ever again, but we can't solve the problems if you don't want to talk about it. 'Forget about it', you said. Well what if I can't? I keep reliving how I felt when I'd realized you'd gone, and that you didn't want to be found. That's not going to happen again."

"I'm sorry," I said in all sincerity. And I was. Maybe while I was angry it would have satisfied me to know that Max had felt that bad, but now it just made me cry. "Never again," I promised, "I will never run away again."

Max looked at me as though she didn't believe me. Figuring she'd just have to trust me on this one, Max took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Now that that's 'taken care of'," Max said this as though she really didn't believe the conversation was over. But she knew I wasn't going to talk about it anymore so she changed the subject. Max stared square ahead of her at the wall. Still not looking at me she continued, "If your mom wants you back, will you go with her?"

That question left me silent.

I knew that this would come up. Max's look back at my mom's house had been about this question. That was why she wasn't looking at me. She was afraid of what my answer would be.

"Max, look at me." Hesitantly she turned her face until her eyes locked on mine. "I can honestly say, that without a doubt if my mom asks me to live with her I will say no,"

Max's face broke out into a smile and the tears she had been holding back were let go. We shared a moment that only the deepest of friends could share. Wrapped in her arms I realized that I would never give this up, not even for my blood parents. Max was my mom, and also my sister and my best friend all in one. She'd practically raised me. Same as I would never let Iggy's sadness be my fault, I vowed to never make Max cry again.

My heart began pounding at dangerously high levels. No, this rapid heart beat wasn't safe. And since it was this house that made my heart beat so fast, I think I should fly far far away from it.

Only Iggy wouldn't let me.

He'd gone back to not letting go of my hand, for the same reason of making sure I didn't run away. But instead of worrying if I were to run away from him he was on guard to make sure I didn't run away from this house. The hand-holding I could deal with. the not-letting-me-leave I could do without.

Max had told me I didn't have to do this. She'd said this when I began hyperventilating this morning. She looked on worriedly and said that I could back out. I guess she didn't want me to die a day after she'd just gotten me back.

Iggy, however, told me that if I didn't do this now I'd regret it for the rest of my life. He said that it would haunt me until the day I came back to Virginia but by then I would have such a deathly fear of this place that I wouldn't go anywhere near her house. That's why he had been the one to volunteer to come along with me while the others stayed at the hotel.

I was actually glad that he came with me. Somehow his warm presence next to mine was reassuring. And when his hand wasn't gripped so tightly to make sure I wasn't about to escape, his tumb was softly caressing the back of my hand, which I had to say was very soothing. Only it didn't make me any less anxious to enter that house.

Iggy leaned down and tickled my ear with his whisper. "Before it was this or nothing, right? Don't you take comfort in the fact that you have a backup plan? It doesn't matter as much if you hit it off with this woman or if you totally hate each other, you have us. You have me."

It was that "you have me" that gave me the courage to ring the doorbell. It was that "you have me" that made me not instantly dig my face into Iggy's arm when my mother answered the door. I did however dig my nails into his skin. He asked me to retract my claws, please, but I barely heard him. I was too busy looking at my mom.

My mom. Her face did look like mine. At first I'd begun to doubt it, a peek through a tinted window of a car rushing past at 40 miles an hour wasn't very reliable. But now I saw we had the same face, only hers was longer, more elegant and more grown-up. I didn't know what to say so I just stood there my mouth agape.

Thankfully Iggy made up for my moment of stupidity. He extended his hand. My mom shook it and then said in a rather confused voice, "Er... hello?"

"Ms. Mariah Carson?" Iggy asked.

The woman nodded and I almost squealed. It was her. It was really her. No doubt about it. I had come from this woman's body, she had given life to me. If I thought my heart was papilating fast then, it was nothing to the marathon it began to run when she admitted to being Mariah Carson.

"Yes, that's me. May I help you?" The look of confusion was gone and now she was begining to take control over the situation. She straightened her posture up a bit and looked at Iggy who was obviously running this show.

"Twelve years ago, did you get pregnant?"

Mariah's face hardened. "Yes," she said her voice with a bit of an edge. "But my child died during labor. What is this about?"

Iggy paused. I closed my eyes and said a slight prayer. This was it. It all came down to this one moment.

"I think-- we think that your baby might not have really died. And we think that Nudge is her."

Iggy pushed me forward a bit. Mariah Carson hadn't noticed me before. Probably because I had been acting as though I were dead on my feet. But now her eyes turned to me.

Both of our breathing stopped. She scanned my face as I had done to her. I knew she was checking and double checking for resemblances. I knew she was second-guessing herself. This was too good to be true, or was it? I'd died, hadn't I? Even though the child in front of her looked like what she'd imagined her child to be, it couldn't be, could it?

"Hi," I finally got up the courage to say something. "My name is Nudge." I extended my hand and closed part of the distance between us. It was up to her to close the other half.

Mariah's hand went out and her arm wrapped around me. She was hugging me. My mom was hugging me. We both started crying at about the same time, further proof that we were kin. We both started babbling incessantly on how we couldn't believe it, and was it really true? Mariah, my mom, invited me in. We sat down on the couch in her living room and couldn't stop staring at each other. Every once and a while she'd reach over and pinch me as if checking to see if I were real. I could get where she was coming from. I realized she only half believed that I was actually her dead baby. Occasionally we'd burst into crying fits either because we were so happy, or because she thought she was dreaming. It was tear-jerking, heart-wrenching a truly touching moment. A moment that I had dreamt about, not just the past four days, but also all of my mutant life.

I wore a little smile, even through the crying bits because now it was over. No w I had met my mom. here was living proff that I wasn't born in a lab, but from an actual human being.

But...

I've learned in life that there are always "but"s. Exceptions to every rule. I was happy that I'd met my biological mother, but I also realized I hadn't let go of Iggy's hand once through the entire thing. I realized that I hadn't needed to meet my mother and that Iggy was wrong. Even if I'd never stepped onto Mariah's porch and rang her doorbell I would've been okay. I would've been whole. I was a part of my family again, and that was all that I needed. The meeting was fun and... 'educational' would be the wrong word for it, but I did learn why I talked too much. My mother also had a motor mouth, or maybe it was just the excitement of seeing someone she'd beleived dead for the past twelve years. We finally came down to the ever-important question.

Mariah was fidgeting. I knew she'd been dodging the subject until she couldn't take it anymore and just had to ask. "I know we've just met, but I want to get to know more of you. Would you like to live with me?"

Iggy's hand tensed up in mine. It was just like when Max had asked me, Iggy looked like she had. Afraid of what would happen next, of what I would say. Only this time I knew my answer.

"I'm sorry Mariah. But I already have a family,"

**Author's Note: Did this ending satisfy everyone? You're not left with any burning questions are you? I hope not. I hope you've had a good time reading this fanfic. This wasn't my first, but this was the only one where I had an actual audience. ::tear::, oh gosh you've got me mushy. I must leave before I cry on my keyboard and short circuit it. buh-bye! See ya in my next fic!**


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